


Trust Fall

by Dandybear



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: But they don't talk about that, F/F, Gen, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Local Xenophiliac Lena Luthor, Matchmaker Kara Danvers, Space Dad Hank Henshaw | J'onn J'onzz, Tentacle Dick, Weird Biology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-09-30 10:11:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17222006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dandybear/pseuds/Dandybear
Summary: In between meddling in her sister's affairs, and eating everything always, Kara takes a Kryptonite grenade to the chest. Waking up to find herself at the mercy of Lena Luthor playing doctor, and curious about her own biology, Kara agrees to let Lena inspect the alien differences between them. Where does science end and gay chicken begin? (Usually when you stop writing your findings down.)Also, other characters appear and have their own lives.





	1. Alex has no gaydar

**Author's Note:**

> It's me, ya boi, back with more alienfucker nonsense.
> 
> Reader voice: hey aren't you the guy who wrote Kara boning her adopted sister with a tentacle dick?  
> Me: *sweating* okay, but I'm more proud of the meditations on life, endangered species, and the universe as a whole from that series  
> Reader voice: it was pretty hot  
> Me:
> 
> Anyway, this takes place in the nebulous timeline of "stuff I want to keep from the show, but I also stopped watching mid season 3 because it got too silly, but I still like some of the new characters and thank god Brainy has replaced Winn"  
> so uh  
> continuity's gonna get funky fresh  
> cherrypicking. i'm cherrypicking. 
> 
> This is probably gonna be rotating POV. Have fun with that, because I sure will.
> 
> We were robbed of Sam/Alex and somebody's gotta fix that (it's me in the metatext and Kara in the text!)

“The shop girl keeps eyeing you up,” Kara pops the 'p’ still looking at her phone.

“Yeah, cause we've been here half an hour and don't look like we're actually gonna buy anything,” Alex says.

“No, it's because you have an undercut and are dressed like you're about to ride the open road on your motorcycle.”

“Ugh, I wish. I have another budget meeting tonight,” Alex groans.

“Sorry for breaking all the windows again,” Kara wanders around a rack of jackets she's not interested in.

“Do you need help finding anything?” the shop girl appears at Kara’s shoulder.

Kara picks a jacket off the rack and holds it up, “Yeah, _my sister_ would like to try this on.”

Alex gawks at her sister, then mouths ‘go fuck yourself’ as she’s taken to the change rooms.

Kara sits on the bench outside, glued to live updates about Superman versus a grey creature that looks like a White Martian, but isn’t.

“I got her number, you happy?” Alex appears, holding a new garment bag.

“I’ll be happy when you get a decent gaydar,” Kara says.

“Sorry, you cheating by being able to smell people's interest doesn’t count as gaydar,” Alex pokes Kara’s shin with her toe.

“Rao, I wish I couldn’t. Humans smell so gross, Alex. Well, all except L-” Kara stands up suddenly, brow furrowed.

“Everything okay?” Alex checks the phone.

“I’m gonna go help out,” Kara says.

“I’ll see you later,” Alex sighs.

 

* * *

 

 

When Kara arrives, Kal has wrangled the creature into a headlock.

“Hey, need some help?” Kara asks.

“Please,” he pants.

“Have you tried talking to him first?” Kara asks.

“Actually, we don’t do genders in my culture, thanks,” the grey alien snarks.

“Sorry, I respect your pronouns. Can you stop destroying the city?” Kara says.

“Absolutely not,” they go on to call Kara a very colourful name in common Thanagarian.

Kara gives it a Vulcan nerve pinch and watches the alien go limp.

“Thanks,” Kal lowers the alien gently.

“Hey Girl, long time no see,” Kara hears.

She turns to see Maggie Sawyer in all her glory. The team behind her springs into action, apprehending the alien and putting them into armoured transport.

“Hey Maggie,” Kara fake smiles.

It’s not that she’s mad at Maggie. It’s just that Maggie was always Alex’s friend and they became family by extension. It’s not like she and Maggie were shooting hoops and seeing Pixar movies before or after that.

“How are you? How’s National City? How’s--”

“Alex is good. Really good. She’s dating. National City’s still standing, so am I,” Kara winces at how awkward that was.

It’s not like she disapproved of Maggie, it’s just that she kind of hoped Alex would marry someone else….

Speaking of which, she wonders if she should stop by L-Corp and say ‘hi’ to Sam.

“This is weird, isn’t it?” Maggie says.

“Yeah, don’t think it’s gonna be not weird for a while….” Kara shrugs.

“It’s good to see you. I mean it. I do miss seeing the symbol on a much nicer chest,” Maggie cocks her lip to take any bite out of that flirt.

“Always glad to be of service,” Kara puffs her chest out.

Maggie laughs and pats her on the arm, “Do you want me to tell her you said hi?” Kara offers.

“Nah, I should text her myself. Take it easy, Blondie,” Maggie gives Kara the gay salute on her way out.

“Oof,” Kal appears at Kara’s shoulder.

“Double oof.”

“Wanna get some food while you’re here?” he says.

“Duh-do I want some food? Who do you think I am?” she says.

So Kara Danvers and Clark Kent get comfort food from the diner with the revolving pie in the sky.

Kara tucks her tongue between her teeth to snap a picture of her meal to send to Lena. She’s met with a sad tongue face and the declaration that she’s mean.

“So, how’s Jimmy?” Kal asks.

“Uh, I think he’s good? We don’t talk much,” Kara finally looks up from her phone.

“Oh. You were just shooting gooey eyes at your phone and I assumed,” Kal fishes.

“The only gooey eyes I’m giving are to this spread,” Kara says, scooping a spoonful of grits off his plate to eat.

“Alright, keep it a secret,” Kal smiles into his rootbeer float.

“There’s nothing to keep. I have no love life. I get up, I go to my job, I go to my second job, I go home and watch TV. Rinse, repeat.”

“Not longing for something more?” Kal leans on his elbow.

Kara fluffs her hair, “I’ll search my heart for a yearning Disney princess song and send it to you if I find one.”

“You’d better. I just worry about you being alone up there.”

“I have my friends to keep me company,” Kara dodges again.

“Yeah, but what about romance?” Kal says.

Kara gives him that bittersweet smile, “Kal, you know, I tried with James, and Mon-El, and you know? I just think I might be too Kryptonian for romance. I know it matters a lot to humans, but love of Rao and love of community are more important to me in the long run.”

He stops pushing. Kryton’s already a sore spot between them. The difference between their immigrations to this planet stark in conversations such as these. It’s playing dirty. To evade with their home planet. The topic’s like a kidney stone for Kal. Mostly harmless, but painful to move past.

“Got any other plans while you’re here?” he asks instead.

“Gonna stop by L-Corp,” Kal makes a face, “Say hi to Sam.”

“You know, the face Lex would make if he found out an alien world killer is running his Metropolis branch is one of my happiest thoughts,” Kal says.

Kara snorts.

 

* * *

 

The Metropolis L-Corp still has that Emerald City sheen to it that makes Kara worry she’s about to meet the wizard. It’s not like the monochromatic polish of a chess board that Lena so prefers.

Sam looks at home in an ominous wingback and fresh haircut.

“ _Erosh~bem,_ ” Kara says.

Sam smiles tightly, she fumbles, repeating the words back to Kara in an accent that sounds more like Spanish.

“It’s good to see you,” she says locking her arms around Kara’s shoulders.

“You look great,” Kara says.

“Good to hear it, I’m getting like three hours of sleep a night,” Sam jokes.

They lean side by side against the desk and watch the skyscrapers outside.

“A lot of work?”

“Mm. We’re always under a lot of scrutiny, but the new energy saving project should change that if I can get the board to sign off on it. But, enough about work. How are you?” Sam asks.

Kara brushes a hair out of Sam’s eyes, “I’m good. Hitting that work-life balance,” Sam laughs at the blatant lie, “Lena misses you. The whole city feels colder.”

“Only because I’m not burning it down with my laser eyes,” Sam half-jokes.

“Sam,” Kara says.

Sam holds up a hand, “I’m over it, well, no I’m not, but I’m moving on.”

Kara nods.

“I wish I could have taken you flying,” she says without meaning to.

Sam blinks in surprise.

“Sorry, it’s just… we’re endangered, and you were the first Kryptonian my age who I wasn’t related to. Adversary or not, it made the world a little smaller, a little more like home.”

“I'm sorry, Kara,” Sam is at a loss.

“Don't be. It was traumatic and scary for you and I shouldn't dwell,” Kara makes swift motions to gather herself.

“I uh, brought something for you and Ruby. I know it seems a little narcissistic, but I get them for all of my team. The crest is--”

“El Mayarah. Stronger together,”

Sam takes the Supergirl shirts, a long sleeve for her and a T-shirt for Ruby. Wordlessly, she flattens them in the tight hug she gives Kara.

When the moment's gone, Kara searches for an exit.

“I gotta pick up some tacos for Alex, she’ll hate me if I forget,” Kara jokes.

But, that’s only half of what she’s doing. She’s planting the first of a conversation seed.

“How is Alex?” Sam asks.

“Oh you know, good. Well, not good, she still has no game with women. I ran into her ex-fiance today actually, super awkward. How's Rub?” Kara fakes the stops on the train of thought, watching Sam digest all the information.

“I don’t know if it’s the change of location or new friends, but Ruby’s been difficult. She’s moody, rude, mouthing off to teachers. I don’t know what to do,” Sam rubs her temples.

“Any idea of what’s bothering her?” Kara asks.

“Aside from the multiple moves and discovery that her mother is an alien war machine?” Sam says.

Kara chuckles, “Yeah, aside from that. She might not even know herself what’s bothering her. I don’t envy you.”

After a long silence Kara moves to leave. She is in no way qualified to give parenting advice.

“Alex was engaged?” Sam breaks the silence.

Bingo.

“Yeah, they uh, broke it off just before you arrived. Irreconcilable differences, but they're still on good terms. Alex wanted kids. Annnd Maggie didn't,” Kara plays her words off as something other than calculated.

“That must've been hard,” Sam chews the inside of her cheek.

“Tacos!” Kara claps once, reminding herself.

She hops up and off the desk. She smooths her palms against the creases of her slacks and shoots Sam a chipper smile. Sam stands also, catching her in a second hug. They make with the pleasantries like Kara isn’t testing the strength of Sam’s grip.

“Right. Thanks for stopping by--”

“Thanks for making time for me--”

“Any time, please make sure Lena takes care of herself--”

“I always do. Give Ruby a big hug for me--”

Sam squeezes Kara’s bicep, “Tell Alex I say hi.”

 

* * *

 

Kara finds Alex slumped on the couch with her phone and a carton of ice cream.

“Yours is in the freezer if you’re hungry,” Alex sighs.

“I could eat,” Kara says, floating to the freezer and giving a gooey look to her Chunky Monkey.

She uncaps it, grabs a spoon, and turns up the TV all while Alex texts and sighs in increasing volume.

“I don’t get it?” Alex groans.

“Talking to girls?” Kara sits cross legged in the air.

“No, well yeah, but not like that. Ruby’s all cold and testy and she was not last week. I don’t know what I did.”

“Guessing the cause of adolescent mood swings is climbing the foothills of the mountain of madness,” Kara says.

“Thank you, Captain Lovecraft.”

“I will consider that name next time I go full villain. What's up with Ruby?” Kara says.

“I was asking if she needed help with her Bio or Chem homework and she told me she can get some help from her actual friends.’

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, I think it might be karmic retribution for what a total shithead I was at that age,” Alex grunts.

“You said it, not me,” Kara hums, “Sam says hi.”

“Hi Sam,” Alex rotates her jaw, “Got a text from Maggie that she saw you.”

“Yeah, bumped into her after the emergency was dealt with. She looked good,” Kara's eyes glide to Alex. She's tightly wound and giving _Scandal_ teary eyes.

Kara gets down from her spot in mid air and switches to the couch next to Alex. She rubs her sister’s bicep soothingly, “You okay?”

Alex leans her head against Kara's shoulder.

“Yeah, I'm good.”

She’s not, and Kara can tell, but who is she to call someone else on repressing a feeling or two? And, it’s not like she isn’t doing anything about it.

 

* * *

 

Someone yells **_grenade_ ** and Kara snaps into action. It's instinct at this point. Throw your solid Kryptonian body in front of danger to save the fragile humans.

Bang.

Except this time it feels like the wind's been knocked out of her. When she was a little girl she was stung by a Kaluan drone. It hurt in one spot, then radiated outwards with a cold static feeling. The kind of static that even turns her lips numb and her tongue fat.

“Supergirl?” a voice buzzes nearby.

“I can't breathe?” Kara manages to tell the figures above her.

Everything goes dark. Pain radiates through her body, then nausea, then a cosmic apathy she’s come to associate with the nuclear grade painkillers they need to fell her. Than, the blissful silence of oblivion.

Wakefulness and life stream back into her, golden and warm. She stretches with her mouth open and tongue out like a cat. Yellow sun lamps. But, she's not at the DEO. The walls are cooler and the shape of glass different.

It's a moment's realization that she's in L-Corp's lab. The one they kept Sam in when she was Reign. Rao, was that really only a month ago? Kara swivels her neck in search of Alex.

“Easy,” Lena catches her with a gentle hand to the wrist.

“I feel terrible,” Kara grunts.

She pats her own chest and stomach, wincing at sensitivity and nausea. She sucks a breath in through her teeth and doubles over.

“Frag grenade full of lead and kryptonite dust. Could have been lethal if you were somewhere else,” Lena's voice is like glass. Sharp, brittle, and smooth. She's projecting professional confidence over fear.

“You saved me,” it's not a question.

“I knew my studies on Kryptonian xenobiology would come in handy. A lot of the information was obtained from observation of Reign and what I've been able to get from Lex's old files. If it were more complete I like to think I could have acted faster,” she says in quick little chunks.

Kara always goes a little nonverbal after big injuries, so instead of voicing her thanks, she reels Lena in for a hug. She’s coated in fear sweat and chemical tang. Kara presses her nose into the crook of Lena’s neck, looking for the comforting scent of her body and perfume.

Lena’s stiff at first, but relaxes into the embrace. She sighs with her whole body and tucks her chin into the top of Kara’s head.

“You had us worried, Supergirl. You don’t always have faceplant into danger like that,” her voice quavers.

“Kinda my job,” Kara says against Lena’s collarbone.

Lena’s breath catches. Right. Kara’s mouthing against her body. This crosses the boundaries set for Lena and Supergirl. This even crosses a line that Kara and Lena have been toeing for years. Despite the shift, they slide into the new comfort zone with ease.

It’s dangerous though, because all Kara wants to do is sink further into Lena’s stale green scrubs and the warm skin beneath. Lena’s the ocean and Kara doesn’t want to come up for air.

“Supergirl, I need to get back to work,” Lena says, a little awkwardly.

“Nuh, you’re warm,” Kara says.

“Supergirl, please,” Lena doesn’t move to separate.

“Shh just lemme stay like this.”

“Okay, if I must hold you, then can I ask some questions?” Lena doesn’t even try to sound convincingly put-upon. If anything, she adjusts her weight, making their embrace more comfortable.

“You can try,” Kara yawns.

“Do you trust me?” Lena asks.

“Of course, Silly.”

(Though, there’s a footnote to that trust. Yes, Supergirl trusts Lena. The asterisk is the identity thing. But, that’s not just a matter of trust. That’s the delicate house of cards their relationship is built on. Kara is Supergirl and Supergirl is Kara. Lena loves Kara dearly, and has a tumultuous relationship with Supergirl. If the two images were to overlay into one, would the distance between them dissolve entirely in a passionate embrace, or dissolve, leaving them both in lonesome agony?)

“Can I look more closely at your Kryptonian biology sometime in the future?” Lena asks quickly.

“Yeah, so long as Alex says it’s okay,” Kara nuzzles closer.

Lena's train of thought starts to short circuit at that.

“D-do you want--”

Approaching footsteps cut her off. With great effort Kara extracts herself from Lena’s heavenly grasp.

“Supergirl,” it’s J’onn.

“Nmm,” Kara groans.

Then she's being lifted by strong arms, “Thank you for your continued assistance, Ms. Luthor.”

“John, we've had Thanksgiving dinner together, you can call me Lena.”

The rest of the interaction goes fuzzy with the other edges of Kara's senses. She awakens in bed to the sound of someone doing her dishes. Everything's too loud and it's like when she arrived on Earth all over again. Her ears follow the clatter of dishes to the footsteps leading to her bed. The clack of dishware on wood makes her wince. The kiss J'onn presses to her temple soothes some of the hurt.

“Chamomile tea and some painkillers. I've called Eliza. She's going to come over for a few days. She was planning on a visit and she wants to check up on you anyway,” he says.

“Mm thanks,” she hums at the end of that. She's never sure what to call J'onn at this point. He's more than a mentor. The only father she's known in more than a decade. He understands her in ways even Alex or Kal don't. Feeling utterly alone on a planet full of people. Staring up at the night sky and feeling such an intense longing it makes her teeth chatter. J'onn gets that. And, she wants to honour that bond. But, calling him father or dad feels off. Feels uncomfortable on her tongue as it tries to escape. So she calls him his name and lets him pick the feeling up out of her mind.

“I'm going to patrol as you, take all the time you need to recover. Lena suggested a few days,” he says.

“I've still gotta go to work,” she groans.

“I can call in sick for you,” he suggests.

“Nah, I'll manage,” she flops onto her back, working towards a patch of fading sunlight.

Through her eyelashes she sees J'onn's fond smile and mirrors it.

“Get some rest Kara.”

“Thanks Pop,” she says with unearned confidence.

He chuckles at that.

 

* * *

 

Alex comes by in the morning with apology doughnuts and fresh government secrets. 

“Sorry I wasn't the one taking point yesterday, I was offsite for team lead training,” she sounds thrilled. 

“Don't worry about it. Lena and J'onn took care of me. Brainy's looking for the source and I'm sure everyone else who knows is out for blood,” Kara says. 

She's debating stuffing a second doughnut into her mouth while watching Alex grumble. 

“I almost put a chair through a window when they told me,” she says. 

“Have you ever thought you might not have the temperament for this?” Kara cringes at the words as she's said them. 

Alex regards her coolly and sips her coffee. 

“About three times a day, actually. It's J'onn's leap of faith. Not mine,” she says. 

Kara hugs her with only minor wincing. 

“Please don’t go full Jack Bauer on me,” Kara says.

“Only because you asked. Which means I get to ask you to take at least a day off flying around to make sure all of the Kryptonite’s cycled out of your system,” Alex steps away.

Kara pouts and does a mini-shaking tantrum.

“I mean it, you can run a check up with Brainy,” Alex says.

“Lena already volunteered, and since she’s the one who performed the actual surgery….” Kara waits for Alex to protest.

Maybe the number of times Lena has saved the day is finally enough to beat out her last name because Alex doesn't seem fazed. 

“Okay. Can you get her to fax me the results when she’s done?”

“What is it with doctors and fax machines? What year is it?” Kara asks.

“Go to work, Nerd.”

 

* * *

 

Catco stands. It's so cemented in Kara's vision of normal that she's pretty sure the building could withstand an apocalypse. She gets coffee at the bougie new cafe that replaced Noonan's. Lena might have had something to do with that. 

_ “I honestly don't know how Cat Grant put up with sub par salads and coffee for so long,”  _ Lena once said. 

“Here you go,” Kara sets a coffee down on Lena's desk and accepts the offered hug. 

“How are you?” Lena pulls back and checks Kara with gentle concern. 

Kara scrunches her whole face up behind her glasses and ducks her head, hiding herself behind that self-deprecating smile. 

“Oh you know me, Miss Clumsy, but otherwise good. How are you?” She grabs at Lena's elbows.

“Didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but I've been much worse.”

“Something bothering you?” Kara leans on the desk, but keeps an eye on the clock. 

“Supergirl got injured in my office yesterday. The DEO took away the grenade, but I spent last night combing through the list of people who want me dead,” Lena sighs. 

“Why doesn't it ever get shorter?” Kara laughs. 

“Because I'm damned if I'm good and damned if I'm bad,” Lena looks ready to daydrink at the thought. 

“You could never be bad,” Kara tugs at Lena's blouse. 

“You haven't seen how bad I can be,” Lena's voice drops dangerously low. That paired with present proximity proves perilous. Close enough to kiss, Kara clears her throat and redirects her eyes towards the clock. 

“I should get to the bullpen, I'll see you for lunch?” 

Lena tightens her lips against her teeth, “Sadly, I have a business lunch. Big investor.”

“Well, break a leg then,” Kara gives her a parting hug. 

“My noon hour is all yours tomorrow though!” Lena calls to her retreating figure. 

“Thanks for the latte, Kara,” Tess says as she exits. 

The bullpen is in full chaos when Kara enters and it's like a baseball bat to the recently shocked senses. 

“Why don't I just make editorial comics? I can make ugly caricatures,” she groans. 

Her assignment is covering the current battle over replacing piping for older and more low income neighbourhoods of National City. It was this or covering rude staff at the airport and she doesn't have the flair for drama disguised as news that their social media branch has. Still, she got into journalism to share information, not for the clicks. 

On the bus ride to City Hall, Alex texts to cancel their dinner plans. She's working late again. And she has that conference in Metropolis next week so she needs Kara to water her plants. 

Kara makes the decision to binge Gilmore Girls when she gets home. Or, at the very least have it on in the background while she digs through municipal paperwork. 

That's when she sees J'onn flying by wearing her face and remembers she has to check in with Lena. 

At least that will be a chance to be super. If not just a super patient. 

 


	2. A Lutheran Obsession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena jumps through the hoops of being a CEO while studying Supergirl, and to another extent, Kara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thank you for all of the support, gang. Glad you're liking it so far. This is most of what I have at the moment, so Chapter 3 is gonna take longer. I go back to work on the 2, as well, so my typing time is gonna be spent making video games instead and I'm very sorry. I'm also typing this at 3 am and am tired so this might not be that sexy. There will be sexy stuff. But people have lives.
> 
> I wanted to write Lena as someone who... you know... actually is accountable for her tech company or something. IDK I'm not a fortune 500 baby, but L-Corp sure doesn't do anything to make money.
> 
> Water is a human right. Call your congressperson. Or whatever you have.
> 
> Will Magnus is a DC character who I made into a lesbian because that's how we do things here. 
> 
> Lena is just so horny for her best friend. God, what a legend.

The thing about the relationship between one Supergirl and Lena Luthor is that it is built upon mutually assured facade. 

Lena drops her heels off with a relieved groan and changes into flats. Her neck is stiff and she just wants to go home, but a very cuddly Supergirl volunteered Lena the information she's so been thirsting for. Kryptonian biology. Laid bare. DNA samples. Genetic material gathered ethically that can be studied for carcinogenic or cancer fighting properties. Real swabs, not just what steals from the wine glasses Kara's left behind. She ruined her first sample, her own curiousity getting the best of her as she lined her lips up with the pink stain Kara left on a paper cup. Just to test for taste variations and immediate anaphylactic reaction. It's science, she wrote the results down. It's not her creepy crush on Kara Danvers-slash-Supergirl creeping already further than it has into her professional life. It's bad enough that she has a personal folder on her computer filled with all of the speculative garbage about the closeness of their friendship. She might have the smear piece calling Kara her “perky blonde lapdog” memorized. 

There's a knocking at the window that has Lena adjusting what she can in a short frame and opening the glass doors. 

“Supergirl,” Lena greets. 

“Dr. Luthor,” Supergirl says. 

Kara keeps her face bare when she's in the costume. It's the girl with the cardigans who hides behind furrowed brows and puffed cheeks. Here Kara looks tired and a little annoyed. Lena finds it refreshing. 

“How are you feeling?” she asks. 

“Better, thanks.”

“Do you remember what we spoke about last? You might not have been in the best mind to answer probing questions about your medical history. I have a release for you to sign or not sign. Please don't feel pressured,” God, why does she turn into such a mess around this woman?

Supergirl unfolds her arms and gives Lena a reassuring pull of the lips, “I remember our agreement, and I intend to honour it.”

“Great,” Lena clicks her pen, “I’m guessing you don’t want to fill out your personal and insurance information.”

“We’re not there yet,” Supergirl says.

“Well, if you’ll follow me into the other room, there’s a gown prepared. Today I wanted to start small. A normal check up,” Lena says.

There’s a privacy curtain for Supergirl to change behind, but Lena leaves the room anyway. She takes deep, hard breaths, and small sips of cold water. She hopes she looks more put together when she returns to the room, finding Supergirl changed and sitting up on the table.

It’s not just the hippocratic oath she took that changes the gears back to professionalism. Seeing Supergirl in a green gown kills the budding libido. There’s nothing sexy about that gown. Not even the tantalizing peek of bare thigh beneath it. It reminds her of her own experiences in that itchy gown. Having her feet put up in cold metal stirrups as a gynecologist pokes around her nethers. The heat of a fluorescent lamp and the stickiness of vulnerability.

No, Kara just looks uncomfortable and pale in this moment, and Lena hates herself for being the cause.

“Have you ever had a check up before?” Lena asks.

Supergirl nods, showing signs of the nonverbal spells Lena’s witnessed in Kara before.

“Is it okay if I turn on the red sun lamps to reduce your defenses?” Lena asks.

There’s hesitation.

“Nothing without your consent, Supergirl,” Lena adds.

“I said I would, go ahead,” Supergirl folds her arms over her torso.

“Thank you for trusting me,” Lena says.

Supergirl nods.

Lena scoots her stool over afterwards, starting with the easy stuff. The kid stuff. She looks inside Kara’s ears and mouth. Checks the reaction time of a Kryptonian pupil. The sunlight slows the reaction enough for it to almost be the same timing as a human’s.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Lena mumbles, leaning over to scrawl her notes down.

“That was one of the first books I read in English. It didn’t make any sense, but neither did anything else on Earth at the time. I think, as a girl, I identified with falling into a strange world,” Kara shares.

Lena smiles, clicking her pen another two or three times, tit for tat, truth for truth, “My mother read me the books. They remind me of her now. I re-read them any time I miss her, and for a moment I think I can hear her voice. Reading them to me.”

“That’s something that doesn’t change no matter where you travel in the universe,” Kara says, faroff look in her eyes.

“What?” Lena asks.

“Missing someone you love,” Kara says, then clears her throat, “Did you see the Tim Burton adaptations?”

“Ugh. terrible.”

“I know, right?”

“Okay, we’re going to do reflexes now,” Lena says.

Supergirl looks upwards at the lamps with concern.

“Problem?” Lena asks.

“Just wondering if they’re strong enough, I don’t want to accidentally kick you into the next room,” Supergirl says.

Lena tries to keep a straight face, but bursts out laughing at the image.

“I’m sorry,” she says between gasps. Kara joins her, starting with uneasy giggles, then turning into belly laughs.

“This is weird,” Supergirl says.

“It is. Thank you for bearing with me,” Lena says.

“I’m pretty sure I owe you a few anyway,” Kara says.

“I’m quite certain we’re even. Perfect reciprocal altruism,” Lena says, hoping she sounds intelligent instead of incredibly lame. 

“Well, then I’m here because I want to be. I’ve been curious about myself as well, and there are questions and concerns I can’t exactly ask the hologram I have of my mother. Or my living mother for that matter,” Supergirl pauses, brow furrowed as she whispers, “I have a living mother now.”

Lena cocks a brow, mallet still in hand and wondering if she should leave this external monologue and come back.

“It’s been a weird year,” she finally says.

“It has. Not sure if it’s weirder than the alien chaos god coming down to Earth to marry me though,” Supergirl says.

Jealousy affects Lena’s swing. Supergirl kicks out against the air, not launching Lena into space, so that’s good. She switches knees, lower lip trapped between her teeth.

“You didn’t marry the alien chaos god?” she says as casually as she can.

“He wasn’t really my type.”

Lena studiously writes down blood sugar and pressure levels. Her brow knits and she purses her lips.

“What’s the diagnosis, Doc?” Kara asks. 

“Perfectly human,” Lena says.

“Huh.”

“Yeah.”

“Weird?” Supergirl offers.

“The only variation I can find is in your body temperature,” Lena touches Kara’s forehead to demonstrate, “You’re about ten degrees warmer than an average human. Something that would regularly hospitalize someone. I assume it has to be due to your reliance on solar radiation. It’s baffling that you don’t have more melanin to aid the process.”

Supergirl side eyes Lena.

“What?”

“Did you just use medical jargon to say I’m too pale?”

“...Yes.”

They finish up and Lena leaves Supergirl to change again. While her social anxiety is still screaming at her, the calm professional voice in her head is telling her she did well. Kara exits the room, back in her uniform and pinching the skin on her hands.

“Everything okay, Supergirl?” Lena asks.

“I need to wait for the red sun to wear off before I can leave,” she says.

“Oh, yes, well, make yourself comfortable by the window. One last thing of course,” Lena says.

Kara pauses, looking at her.

Lena holds out a red sucker, “For being such a good patient.”

That gets a smile. That rare one, the one where she tucks her chin and keeps her eyes open, if still a little crinkled.

Supergirl’s unwrapping the sucker and watching the last of the sunlight stain the skyline. Lena wishes she had the skill of sketch, so she could get the lines of her profile just right. It’s weird. The two of them like this. No emergency to take Kara up-up-and-away, no glasses between them. No food laid out for them to talk through. Are they more or less guarded with each other in this moment?

“Director Danvers wants copies of your results faxed to the DEO,” Kara remembers.

“Mightily magnanimous of her to share this information with me,” Lena says with 10% bitterness.

“She trusts you too,” Supergirl says, “If she didn’t then I wouldn’t be here.”

Lena chews her lip.

There’s a little whoosh and Kara makes a giddy noise as she’s able to hover again.

“Okay, I should get going,” she says.

“Be careful, Supergirl, we don’t know if you’re at full capacity yet,” Lena says, grabbing the edges of the other woman’s cape.

“I’ve done this before a few times, it’ll be fine,” Kara says, stroking a line from Lena’s eyebrow to her cheek with an index finger.

“Go then,” Lena sighs.

“Until our next appointment, Dr. Luthor.”

 

* * *

Lena’s home has the exact same layout as her office, so when she’s running on three hours of sleep she can stagger through the two locales without changing her walking patterns. If that isn’t a metaphor for her life as a whole, she’s not sure what is. Lena Luthor, a match cut between work and home away.

She collapses into her couch, leaving her shoes in a heap by the coffee table. She enjoys the blissful nine minute power nap she gets in before her phone buzzes its way across the table.

“Caller ID,” Lena groans.

“Samantha Arias,” her phone replies.

“Answer call,” Lena says, “Speaker phone.”

“Hey,” Sam’s voice comes in quiet.

“Hey, it’s what, 11 where you are?” Lena says.

“Shit, are you home? I thought you’d still be at the office.”

“My doctors have recently advised me to reduce my time at work as not to die of an early stress-related death,” Lena half-jokes.

“It must be personal growth that you aren’t taking that as a challenge,” Sam says.

There’s a pregnant pause followed by uneasy laughter, “Dark, Sam.”

“Sorry, too dark? I can’t remember if I used to joke like this… you know, before the whole Reign thing.”

“It’s fine, Sammy. Is this a social call or business?” Lena gets up to check her fridge for some kind of leftovers.

“Bit of both, sadly. Saw Supergirl this week. She seemed a little worn down,” Sam begins.

“I’m not privy to much of her moods, but I know that reminders of her home planet leave her a little despondent,” Lena pops a grape in her mouth.

“Yeah,” Sam sucks in a breath, “So, we’re down from last quarter and the investors aren’t gonna be happy with our current numbers.”

“We are in the black though?”

“We’re in the black. But, you know how they are, they want growth, and at our current figures that isn’t happening. Lee, without the DOD lining our pockets we need more than promises of high grade experimental tech,” Sam’s voice moves around, she must be home as well.

“When I took control of this company, I decided that L-Corp wasn’t going to be proudly displayed on weapons of mass destruction anymore,” Lena insists.

“And I’m proud to work here because of it, all that I’m saying is that we need a cash cow to replace the war money so we can develop stuff that makes the world better without the board throwing a coup.”

Lena sighs, putting some pad thai in the microwave and meditating on Sam’s words.

“Any ideas?” she says.

“Well, consumable gadgets at a consumer price is a good route. Expensive enough to be a status symbol. Maybe send a few out to key celebrities to get a buzz going. Build them cheap and release a new model each year?” Sam suggests.

Lena sniggers, “Sam, we are not Apple.”

“I’m just saying! Nothing quite changes a company name like fashion brand recognition.”

“What are we even gonna sell? Trendy alien detectors?” Lena jokes.

Sam goes quiet at that, “I thought you got rid of that prototype.”

Realization washes over Lena like a bucket of cold water, “I did. I’m sorry, Sam. It was a joke. Still, it’s the kind of product people will be expecting from us. It’s not like we can reinvent the music player and muscle our way into that industry. The world doesn’t need another Zune.”

“Then sniff around R&D. You practically sleep there anyway. Find someone developing something that’s not built for xenophobia or murder and pitch a way to get it on shelves before Christmas,” Sam says testily.

“You’re right. I know you’re right. Thank you, Sam,” Lena says.

Sam sighs, “I’ve gotta go.”

“Mmkay, miss you. Give Ruby a hug for me.”

“I miss you too. Love you, Lena,” her voice softens.

“Love you too Sam, have a good night.”

Lena sighs into her noodles. The house is quiet around her. Her social and physical battery depleted down to ten percent. She used to revel in the workaholic lifestyle, even boasting about taking pure caffeine with Jack during finals season. Now, she can’t help but romanticize working a forty-hour week and having a life outside of work and eating with Kara. The closest thing she has to a hobby is getting kidnapped by her enemies.

That’s a depressing thought. Maybe she should get a cat.

 

* * *

 

Not looking forward to her upcoming board meeting, Lena takes Sam’s advice and sniffs around the R&D department for a new consumer-friendly product. Most of what L-Corp has been focusing on is advancements in medicine. It’s moral. To go from taking lives to saving it. She’d be lying if her tests on Supergirl were purely for her own curiousity (and fetishism). Kryptonian powers: healing, invulnerability--even laser eyes, might have the key to treating cancers, viral infections, and blindness. If she can decode the Kryptonian gene and isolate what makes it so easy for Superman to get back up after being hit by a bus, she might be able to cure… ALS or something.

Striding through R&D in Boss Mode is fun, because everyone goes from chatting, browsing, and taking a break into Immediate Action Mode. Appearing busy in case she’s here to make cuts.

She finds what she’s looking for at the desk of a woman with short hair and colourful checkered socks.

“What have you got there Dr. Magnus?” Lena asks.

“Robots. Lots of them. Which one tickles your fancy?” the woman slides over in her spinning chair, radiating a distinct Kate McKinnon vibe.

Lena points to the one hovering to her left, “This one.”

“Eve! She’s a cutie, isn’t she?” Doc Magnus whistles and the robot flies over, doing a figure eight above them.

“What does Eve do?” Lena asks.

“Well, I was inspired by Wall-E, so she surveys soil levels and provides analysis of what’s needed to make ideal conditions for the upcoming growing season. Farming robot.”

“I love the idea. Can you make one of a similar design that just,” Lena sighs, “Works like an AI assistant for the house?”

“...You want me to take my soil bot and turn her into Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons?” Doc Magnus asks.

Lena leans against the table. She likes Wilhelmina Magnus. A brilliant woman, with the same soft butch aesthetic as Kara that has Lena second-guessing as to why she and Will never became A Thing. Regardless, she trusts the other doctor enough to be frank in her intentions. 

“We need a flagship product to increase consumer trust with our products. Eve here,” Lena feels bad for saying it, “Won’t make if off the shelves if Luthor is still associated with chemical explosions and supervillainy. And, since everything you produce under our roof counts as our intellectual property….”

“Noted,” Will says grimly, “So, we’re muscling in on the digital assistant market by putting a government wiretap that can pick up your dry cleaning in every household?” 

“Something like that,” Lena says, “Though the ethics of replacing a human-sorry, sapient, workforce springs to mind. We need our iPod.”

“Well, I’m flattered you think little Eve here is it. Do you want the prototype to come in Rose Gold?” Will grins.

“Of course, and maybe Luthor Green,” Lena jokes.

 

* * *

 

She loves that their relationship is intimate enough at this point that they can share a massive pile of General Tso wings in silence over lunch. Over are the days of trying to impress Kara with Cobb Salad, Waldorf Salads, and Caesar Salads. Now they suck the bones together, no, that’s unfortunately not a euphemism.

“I read your piece on the water pipe situation in Las Colinas. Great work connecting the threads between it and the situation in Flint,” Lena says.

Kara shrugs, “It was an obvious parallel and including it increased the chances of something actually getting done about it instead of an entire community getting lead poisoning.”

She moves with such obvious rage for how distracted she looks as she mechanically snaps meat and cartilage off with her teeth. 

“Finish the potstickers, I want the rest of the edamame,” Lena says.

If Sam were here she’d shudder at the pile of Asian fusion cooking that succeeds in being filling if not authentic.

“I was gonna finish them anyway, but I appreciate the permission,” Kara gives her a sticky thumbs up.

“I wish infrastructure maintenance and local politics were problems Supergirl could just punch until they were fixed,” Lena says, baiting Kara. 

“Ugh, me too. If the problem with the pipes were do to an alien virus or Le--Max Lord putting anthrax into the water supply then Supergirl could just whoosh in and all of the money would be pooled into the right places for everything to get fixed. Instead, children are getting lead poisoning and the response is a collective shrug.”

“People should have thought about not wanting lead poisoning before deciding to be poor?” Lena offers.

Kara wrinkles her nose, “See? I can’t punch that line of thinking in the face and it makes me so mad.”

She wipes her hands off and leans back against the couch, looking pensive and satisfied, “Hey, you have money and power….”

Lena snorts, “Put those in air quotes and you’ll be correct. I’ve had a lot more scrutiny from the company after buying up CatCo. My liquid funds aren’t exactly what they used to be.”

“Still,” Kara says.

“You’re correct. I could do something.”

“Make a donation at least,” Kara says.

“It’s not that I don’t trust my money to enter the right channels to fix the problem, but I don’t.”

“How Libertarian of you,” Kara fires across the bow.

Lena sticks her tongue out, “I prefer the term control freak.”

“I’ve heard that there’s a supervillain with that name upstate in Jump City.”

“For Christ’s sake.”

“I don’t make the news up, I just report it.”

“That’s not what Congress is saying.”

They both pause, wincing in the present dire political climate and climate in general. Kara stretches an arm across the back of the sofa to play with Lena’s underhair. Lena closes her eyes and leans into the touch.

“I still have a lot of fundraiser money leftover in the budget. We can do a gala for local water cleanliness,” Lena says.

She can feel Kara’s grin, even with her eyes closed.

“Not worried about more articles calling me… what was the term, peppy lapdog?”

“ _ Perky blonde lapdog _ ,” Lena says with air quotes.

“So you’re not worried about the obvious showing of favouritism?” Kara teases.

“I am, but I’m also aware of when it’s futile to fight against something,” Lena smiles low and slow, hoping it’s sexy instead of revealing a bunch of green bean and orange chicken.

When she opens her eyes she sees Kara giving her that cipher look. It’s soft and affectionate, not betraying any heat or tension behind it. Unconditional love, Lena thinks it’s called.

“So, word on the street is that you’re conducting science experiments on Supergirl,” Kara says.

Lena closes her eyes to avoid rolling them, “Off the record of course.”

“Of course, my boss would murder me if her words were taken out of context,” Kara says.

“I have this friend… well, she’s more like a conscience for my own blind biases, she keeps telling me to open my mind and heart to our alien refugees. Well, Supergirl is my favourite alien neighbour, even if we don’t always see eye to eye, and I’d hate for her to get sick and not know what to do,” Lena fiddles with her rings to avoid eye contact.

Kara squeezes Lena’s hand, “But, you always know how to fix things when it gets bad for Supergirl.”

“I have up until now, I’d like to be able to act instead of react. Plus, who knows, maybe I’ll stumble across some great medical discovery to help both aliens and humanity,” Lena says.

There’s no subterfuge here, she knows Kara’s too good at detecting her bullshit. What she needs to do is convince her best friend to trust that her intentions are pure.

Well, except for the impure intentions, but those are the sexy kind of impure, not the amoral kind.

“I think Supergirl would be glad to help with that,” Kara says, voice tight with emotion.

The alarm Lena sets on her phone rings, marking the end of lunch. She leans closer, feeling the temptation to say goodbye with a swift peck to the lips. They’re comfortable enough with each other at this point that she could probably play it off as friendly affection. Chickening out, Lena settles for a smooshing of lips against Kara’s cheek during their hug.

“Thanks for lunch,” Kara says.

“Any time. Thanks for the break,” Lena says.

“You’d better go home at a decent hour tonight,” Kara warns her. 

 

* * *

 

“Our next experiment is fitness. We know your performance when super powered, but I’ll be curious to see how well you out perform the human averages when depowered,” Lena says.

Supergirl looks baffled, “Is this why you texted Kara Danvers to tell me to bring a sports bra?”

“Yes.”

She actually chuckles, “Well, okay. Let me get my cape off. Do you have the equipment up here?”

“We’ll be going downstairs to the more bullet proof testing facilities,” Lena adjusts her hair, hoping to look tempting for what is soon to be a very sweaty Supergirl.

“I hope there are no bullets involved,” Supergirl’s voice is suspicious.

“Of course not, but if there are any accidents, I don’t want them destroying my workspace.”

“Fair enough.”

Supergirl follows her to the elevator. It’s so weird traveling with Kara like this. Lena averts her eyes to avoid staring, instead looking at the numbers on the elevator.

“How are you feeling this week?” her voice cracks.

“Good. A little bored since Director Danvers out of town. How are you?” Supergirl asks.

“Stressed out, but that’s nothing new,” Lena says on an exhale.

Mercifully, the elevator dings open to reveal their floor. Next is the maze of leading Supergirl through hallways and swiping key cards until the reach the open air gym Lena’s set up.

She flicks on the second light switch, bathing the room in a morbid red glow. Supergirl sucks in a breath, obviously feeling the immediate effects, “Don’t think I’m going to get used to that.”

“Is it worse than Kryptonite?” Lena asks.

Supergirl shakes her head, “No, it just reminds me of Nazi doctors trying to steal my heart. Literally, not… romantically.”

“That sounds like a story.”

“Alternate dimension where everything was Nazis. Even me.”

Lena doesn’t really know how to respond.

“It’s good, I punched her a bunch,” Supergirl reassures her, “She’s dead now.”

“I promise not to literally steal your heart to give to Nazis,” Lena says, then, feeling a little brave says, “I can’t guarantee I won’t steal your heart the other way though.”

Supergirl laughs, looking somewhere between caught off guard and smitten.

“Okay, tell me where you want me.”

Everywhere. Obviously. Lena says internally. No, she’s left wishing she had a tall glass of lemonade and some sunglasses to lower in enjoyment. Instead, she clicks her pen as she watches Supergirl run at a full clip on the treadmill. Four hundred pounds is where she starts to buckle in the weight lifting. And, she can do push ups forever it seems. Lena doesn’t really want to tell her to stop, fantasizing about licking the sweat off the other woman’s neck and chest. Instead, she hands Supergirl a towel.

“You’re better than I thought,” Lena says.

“Oh?” Supergirl is mildly offended.

“I assumed your power augmentations were making up for a lot of your power. That your natural strength would be lessened due to relying on your abilities. Even in your current state, you pose a threat to the average human being. Physically, not morally,” Lena adds.

“Thanks?” Supergirl says.

“No need to thank me. Thank you for your time.”

The ending of their sessions is always the most awkward part. Lena’s more relaxed in the elevator ride up though.

“So, we’ve learned what? That I’m hot and strong? Is that news to you, Dr. Luthor?” Kara’s being cheeky.

Lena bites her tongue, “Don’t forget your amazing stamina.”

Supergirl’s cheeks go a little pink.

“I was thinking of testing your sensitivity next. If that’s okay with you?” the elevator doors open.

Supergirl steps out, worrying her lip.

“Is this the gateway to cutting me open?”

“I’ve already cut you open. No, the hardest I’d use is a pinprick,” Lena smooths an invisible crease on Supergirl’s suit as Supergirl re-attaches her cape.

“I don’t know when my next availability will be, but I’ll tell Kara Danvers when some time frees up,” she says.

“Whenever you can,” Lena says, “Thank you for trusting me this far.”

“I know that your intentions are good,” some of the guarded look leaves Supergirl’s eyes.

“But?”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s the actions that matter to me. Don’t misuse this,” Supergirl hardens again.

“I think we’ll find that out in hindsight,” a sardonic line etches across Lena’s mouth.

Supergirl’s gone in a whoosh. Lena relaxes, finally free to let her mind explore muscular thighs and the cove of Kara’s neck.


	3. Vessels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara visits her mother on Argo, Alex visits Metropolis. Some fucking shenanigans happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of the support on this story so far gang. I'd love to know more of what you think than 'update soon'. For the questions I've had, I am on tumblr @holyfuckabear. It's not a writeblr, but you can hit me up with questions and comments there. 
> 
> This chapter was rewritten because I wasn't satisfied with it. Now with 80% more introspective Kara angst. Not a lot of SuperCorp in this one (audience booing) SORRY, I GOTTA WORLDBUILD. IT'S CALLED SLOW BURN FOR A REASON.
> 
> I've had a high fever all week.
> 
> I made up the Kryptonian language in this chapter because I'm sorry kids but I don't have enough time in my day to research fake alien languages. I do have time to have characters realistically talk about how language works tho so we have that.

When Kara was young her mother showed her a map of Earth, all of the continents scattered around her like pieces of a puzzle, and said, “All of this will be yours to protect someday.”

And, Kara, at the time, let the nagging questions of ‘what about you and Father?’ or ‘why are you saying this like a goodbye?’ stay nagging at the back of her head. Instead, she traced the shapes. The elephant’s ear of Africa. All of the musical little spots of Hawaii and Samoa. 

In hindsight, among everything else, she finds it a little arrogant for her mother to tell a child that she will inherit an alien home world. As if Kara’s arrival made her some kind of super ruler.

That’s not what Alura meant, probably not, anyway. She wanted to instill responsibility. It’s not the Earth that Kara owns, it’s the troubles. A human back would buckle under the strain of war, famine, injustice, and so many cats stuck up trees. But, not Kara. She’s built of stronger stuff.

Stuff she’s not even sure of now that she has time to look at it.

Maybe that’s why she agrees. Lena wants to know what Kara’s made out of and Kara can’t even give that a definitive answer herself.

Alura gave her the world and packed her into a tiny box and watched her daughter disappear as the world around her collapsed.

Kara has been living with this as her truth since she was thirteen years old.

She’s had to grow up without knowing her parents as people. Without knowing Zor-El and Alura anyway. She grew up with Eliza Danvers steady hand. Eliza who looked a young Kara in the eyes and said, “You don’t have to carry this heavy burden alone.” and then unloaded some of that onto Alex.

(But Alex and Eliza have been able to patch that up because they’re alive and that’s how family has to grow.)

Kara found out that her parents were complicit in Krypton’s destruction. The privileged House of El let the rest of their people burn out like a sun while saving their own children.

True or false, may name is Kara Zor-El, my family gave me the Earth, and I am the last of my species.

True, false, false, false.

Argo lives. Her mother lives. Her species lives. Kara went from Tasmanian Tiger to Bengal Tiger status overnight. 

No, she’s not really over it.

She had come to terms with screaming at a holographic projection of her mother to deal with all of that rage. Now, the living, breathing person is there to scream at and Kara just….

Kara’s supposed to go to Argo to bring Lois ice cream, and to give her mother a book, and to visit with her mother, and instead she’s hyperventilating on her floor.

She’s walking herself backwards through her anxiety coping methods. Focus on your breathing. Find your heartbeat, then the heartbeat of everyone else you love in the city. Her own. Alex is in Metropolis and Kara chokes on how much she’s come to rely on Alex being within yelling reach. Instead, she finds Eliza’s, just ran off to the shops to get something for dinner. J’onn’s at a bookstore. She finds Lena’s stressed little ticker is pacing the top office at L-Corp. It’s accompanied by James’s and Kara’s gut lurches, wondering if it’s not stress that’s making Lena’s heart race. She focuses on the pulses.

Nope.

They’re having a fight.

Which isn’t new, but it is what makes the Board Game Night group chat super awkward. Especially now that Winn and Sam have left said group and aren’t there to respond to Kara’s memes.

The distraction is enough to get Kara off the floor and breathing regularly.

“I should invite Brainy and Nia to board game night,” she tells the empty room.

“Okay, now or never, Danvers,” she tells herself, dusting her knees off.

 

* * *

 

“I wish I knew enough about Stargate to make a reference,” Kara says.

Brainy looks up at her like she’s speaking a different language. She really appreciates that actually. If he were Winn he’d launch into some speech about how it is A Crime that she has never seen all twelve seasons of SG-1-slash-spinoff shows and something something Jason Momoa.

“I take that back,” she says.

“Okay,” Brainy says.

“How does the return function work?” Kara asks.

“I’ll be on standby for your communication to come back. If the comm goes out, I’ll be re-opening the portal in two hundred and forty minutes.”

“Four hours.”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Kara blows out a breath, “Wish me good luck.”

“Good luck, Kara Zor-El.”

He’s not the best for banter, but he’s a good guy in a world short of those. Kara twirls through the portal because why not at this point.

Argo City stands. One definition of utopia collapsing slowly into itself like a dying star. Unfair, Argo City shows the wear and tear of decades of disrepair, but still sturdy and beautiful.

Kara wonders if it’s even changed at all or if it’s just her own jaded world view seeing it for what it is, rather than its potential as a child.

She tries to fly to view everything from a bird’s eye view, see if that’s changed.

Oh yeah, she has no powers here.

Crap! Her ice cream’s melting!

So, Kara jogs to her mother’s house instead. Out of breath and sweaty for the first time since… well, since Lena put her on a treadmill and then proceeded to be very aroused for the rest of the session. So, like, last week, but it’s still not common.

Getting the front door open is like when National City transit switched from transit tickets to passes and Kara spent a month on autopilot trying to jam her pass into the the ticket slot before she finally adjusted the muscle memory. Argonian doors are handprint activated. It heats up a little to her touch, then sighs a little synth tune.

Then she’s inside and once again trying to rearrange the puzzle pieces of her life.

This was her childhood home. All that carved crystal and clean interior. She got the dent in between her eyebrows from face planting onto that very coffee table. The soft salmon lights have faded to more of a sickly orange, and there’s a dusty smell to everything.

She was supposed to grow up in this house, select her guild, then attend the correct academy. Justice Kara Zor-El. Or, maybe she’d join the Science Guild like her father.

No, Kara knows that if she’d stayed on Krypton. Grown up in Argo. If nothing bad had happened she would have joined the Military Guild to be with Astra. To thumb her nose at her parents best intentions for her. To have the stars ever closer in her reach than judicial service would let her do. To have the chance to punch her problems.

In her wandering through memories, she finds her mother on the same balcony where Kara would meet with Astra. The same balcony where her aunt got arrested.

She stumbles on her greeting, the words coming in a rush. Not the same confidence she felt with Sam. Maybe it’s because Sam’s wouldn’t know the difference between an accent and a mispronunciation, not being a native speaker.

“Hi Mom,” she says.

She doesn’t say,  _ “I’m home, Mama.”  _ Because this isn’t Kara’s home.

Alura looks up from what she’s reading and gives Kara this teary smile she’s seen reflected from the mirror a time or two.

Kara embraces her mother, because how could she not?

Alura smells the same, even if she looks different than Kara remembers. She supposes everyone does with time.

“Welcome back, Little One,” Alura smiles.

That knot of anxiety built in Kara’s chest lessens, just a little. Just enough to breathe again.

“I brought you something, but first, I need to see Kal, I have something important for him that can’t wait.”

Alura’s brow furrows and Kara realizes how urgent that sounds, so she holds up the ice cream.

Right, her mother has no context for that either.

“This will melt,” Kara supplies.

Alura nods slowly, “Kal has been living in Jor-El’s old apartment.”

“Of course. I’ll be right back,” Kara leans in to kiss her mother on the cheek and is rebuffed.

Hurt is replaced by understanding because her mother is still Argonian. Not a culture filled with affection.

Which is a whole other can of worms she has to open while she’s here. See, she was born out of sexual reproduction, but not sexual intimacy. After her parents arranged marriage, they filled out an application for reproduction, and (according to family lore) it took a really long time to go through because Alura is a twin. Argo’s strict one child policy will bend only in the case of naturally produced twins or triplets, so whenever that gene factors in it needs another few rounds of approval. Anyway, it passed and then members of the Fertility branch of the Science Guild went through the system and found Zor-El’s sperm collections, matched them with some of Alura’s eggs and deposited the fertilized foetus into the Birthing Matrix. A lot more complicated than the Earthing ‘birds and the bees’.

She’s not sure her parents ever even had sex. She thinks she saw them kiss once, but that could be a memory of Jeremiah and Eliza.

So, struggling with her own impulses back on Earth, plus being a little older now and knowing a few Kryptonians who aren’t her parents and have very present libidos… she’s not even sure how to phrase the question.

_ “Hey Mom, have you ever had a sexual impulse or were you just not attracted to Dad?” _

She could ask that or she could not and go home, put on the Mamma Mia soundtrack, and paint her feelings out.

That one definitely sounds better.

Much better than having to hoof it, again, to Uncle Jor-El’s place to meet with Kal and Lois.

Lois is very happy to see her, “You are a godsend!”

Kara accepts that hug, feeling a million times better already.

“I come bearing gifts of great melty joy.”

“Clark, tell your cousin she’s my favourite alien.”

“Thanks, Dear,” Kal pops in from another room. Kara hugs him as well.

Lois moans as she tucks into a Melona bar.

“I always mock those people who think getting away to the boonies is a vacation. You can pay me to stay somewhere without wifi and access to a 24 hour grocery, but never for fun. And yet, I find myself doing just that… boldly going to a world of inconvenience.” Lois laments.

Kara cocks a brow at Kal, his own smile is similarly wan. 

“It’s going to take some getting used to,” he says.

Kara shakes the box at him. He relents, stuffing one into his mouth as Lois grabs a second. They end up seated on the floor around the sofa and staring at the ceiling.

“My accent’s all wrong,” Kara says.

Kal tugs Lois’s knees, pulling her feet and calves into his lap to massage.

“It’s kind of like when I first came to Metropolis, everyone said my Smallville accent was really strong--”

“It was, and it was adorable,” Lois cuts in.

Clark smiles, “--but when I visited Smallville everyone started saying I had a more Northern accent now.”

Kara nods, brooding around her ice cream.

“Speaking of language stuff, what does the word hrobeck mean?” Kal asks her.

Kara blinks then frowns, “Hrobeck or th~hrobeck?”

“The latter,” Lois says.

Kara talks through her ice cream, “Well, there’s like context stuff that would make it easier for me to tell. Because, they have the same root word ‘robeck’ which means ‘vessel’--‘carriage’ is probably a better translation. So, hrobeck means uhh fancy boat? But, th~hrobeck means female livestock. Why?”

Kal stops massaging Lois’s legs and Kara watches the angry tick of his jaw. Lois, on the other hand, just reaches for another Melona. 

“It’s what they’ve been calling Lois,” Kal says.

“Who they?” Kara asks, without wanting to know the answer.

“Uh, the Argonians we’ve been talking to,” Kal avoids saying Alura’s name.

Kara takes a deep breath and looks at them. Really looks at them. The conflict between anger and fear. If they return to Earth then they’ll be safe, yes, but Lois could die. Pregnancy is a ten month long battle without having an unstable alien foetus inside.

Red sun lamps. Like the kind Lena uses on her. They could just put those up in the Kent household.

Except, they don’t know enough about the effects of red sunlight on unborn kryptonian children of human mothers.

Well, now that just makes the research with Lena that much more important. And, since Lena is a literal goddess of last minute ass saving, Kara’s going to put her trust in the woman who has lied to her a lot less than her mother.

“How would you two like to accompany me back to Earth?” Kara says slowly.

“I’ll get my things,” Lois says.

Kal winces and watches her leave the room.

“This idea was a lot better on paper,” he says.

“Ideas often are,” Kara says.

“You okay? Your heart seems heavy,” Kal asks.

“Being here is a lot,” Kara says.

“I can only imagine.”

“I always wanted to share our homeworld with you, Kal, to show you all this,” Kara says.

“You are, right now. How does it hold up?” he asks.

Kara shakes her head, “I wanted it to be glorious for you.”

“I’m sorry, Kara,” he squeezes her shoulder.

“I’ll get over it,” she lies.

Kara leaves the copy of Alice in Wonderland in her uncle’s old apartment.

Brainy’s waiting at the portal, curious to see that she arrives with more than she left with, but unbothered.

“Thanks for waiting,” she says to him.

“You took less time than expected,” he says.

“Yeah, turns out I didn’t need much.”

 

* * *

 

The thing about work trips is that the combination of jet lag and structured days is that everything is a tired blur of meeting rooms and powerpoint presentations. Alex wonders how she got through med school when it was mostly this, then remembers how much Adderall she was taking at the time.

At least her hand’s paying attention, because she’s half asleep when the speaker asks for her opinion on something and she gives them a suddenly alert half answer.

A tiny scoff of a laugh has her rolling her eyes at Vasquez, sitting to her left.

_ Nice save.  _ Vasquez writes on the corner of her own paper. Alex flips her off under the table.

It’s good to catch up with her. She said that she moved to the Metropolis branch for a promotion, but Alex still has a sneaking suspicion it was Winn’s presence that exorcised Vasquez from their DEO HQ.

_ We’re getting dinner at the pub tonight. You coming?  _ Vasquez adds.

_ I have plans.  _ Alex looks up from her paper to ask a question about the weapons prototypes.

She can feel a pointed stare on the side of her head and she wants to be defensive. To insist, no, it’s not Maggie. It’s not. No matter how many times her thumb has hovered over the contact name in her phone since she got here.

It’s dinner with Sam. 

A dinner that was planned before she even got here as a ‘fun catch up’ which she knows will probably be spent talking about Ruby for an entire evening.

Which is a good change of gears from avoiding calling her ex and drawing guns in the margins of her notes.

She expects bright sunlight when she exits the nondescript government building and is instead hit with evening. God, time differences are the worst.

She and Sam have been playing text tag over the week with times and restaurants. Ultimately, Alex’s left it in Sam’s capable hands, too exhausted to make any suggestions.

On the drive over the parade of second guesses marches through her brain with the GPS directions. What if Sam picked somewhere fancy? What if there’s no parking and she has to drive in circles for hours? Shit, did she remember to put deodorant in the glove compartment?

She’s on the verge of a panic attack and cancelling when she arrives at the sushi restaurant Sam picked out. It’s modest and stylish. Outside stands Sam Arias in a shimmery white blouse, blue jeans, and a fresh haircut. She looks different than Alex remembers, but that’s how memory is with people. To Alex’s memory, Sam is warm eyes and a cheeky smile. 

She remembers a freckle or two, but upon inspection there are none.

“Good to see you,” Alex greets.

Sam presses a palm to the back of Alex’s head when they hug, “Alex.”

There’s a warmth and comfort in her arms that is intoxicating. Alex passes it off as her own touch starvation and exhaustion.

“You cut your hair,” she says when they pull away, brushing a finger against the locks as they fan outward.

“Needed a new me, do you like it?” Sam’s smile is sheepish.

“It looks good on you. New or not,” Alex smiles back.

There’s a silence too long that passes between them. Then Sam clears her throat and reaches for the door.

They sit in a booth with a view of the TV so they can boo the Red Sox while they wait for their food.

“So, you’re here for work?” Sam asks, taking a sip from her Kirin.

“Yeah, can’t talk about it,” Alex shrugs, “How’s work for you?”

“About the same, a lot of corralling Lena into money making instead of trying to save the world, slash impress Kara.”

Alex almost snorts into her beer.

Sam makes a combination facial expression and hand gesture that says ‘tell me I’m wrong’.

“I’ve given up on that whole...” Alex trails off before even trying to define her sister’s sticky love life.

“Yeah,” Sam agrees, “How is Kara? She seemed down when she was here.”

“That just means you’re joined the Real Kara Club. She projects the sunniness a lot, but she’s been a functionally depressed muppet for as long as I’ve known her.”

“Sounds rough,” Sam says without sounding callous.

“Yeah, I worry about her sometimes. I’ve got no right to, considering she’s my emotional service golden retriever.”

That gets a big laugh. Alex finds herself surprised how easily the conversation comes when it’s not about scary test results, the end of the world, or Ruby. Ruby, who has been tetchy and pig headed towards her mother, not just Alex.

“I hate to be relieved by that,” Alex says, passing the wasabi.

“I think it’s adolescence. At least I hope it is. I want to trust her enough to not go through her social media, but kids often hide stuff they shouldn’t because they think they can handle it.”

Alex winces, “I know I did. Kara and I investigated the death of a classmate without telling our mom once.”

“I was dating a guy ten years my senior because he offered to get me out of town when I graduated,” Sam says.

Alex switches from beer to tea to avoid speaking her mind.

“Ruby’s dad?”

“Yeah, real charmer.”

There’s an awkward silence that Alex decides to break, “But, hey, look at us now?”

“Gay as a French picnic, slightly buzzed, and outstanding in our fields?” Sam says.

Alex feels her cheeks colouring, “You think I’m outstanding?”

“You’re literally the director of the Men In Black. You’re like a more badass Agent Scully.”

“Okay one, don’t say that so loud, and two, it’s impossible to be more badass than Agent Dana Scully, so you are sorely mistaken…” Alex trails off as she feels a boot tap her calf and the cheekiness in Sam’s smile intensifies.

“Do you like skeeball?” Sam asks.

“I happen to love skeeball.”

Which is how Alex ends up at a retro-modern arcade playing skeeball and DDR like she’s in college again.

“I learned how to get S Rank on this blindfolded,” Sam says, after breezing through  _ Butterfly _ like it’s something to brag about.

(It is pretty impressive.)

Alex tries to fight back by showing off her Pacman skills, but dies when she feels the steady hand that’s been anchoring the back of her waist dip into her back pocket.

And,  _ oh.  _ For someone who has been on the receiving end of the seductions of a tech CEO before, Alex sure has been oblivious to the blatant flirtation. Unlike Maxwell Lord though (oof, throwback) Alex isn’t violently opposed to the hand currently on her ass.

She closes her eyes to see the montage of moments she’s had with Sam leading up until this moment that smacks her in the face. Oh. This has been a thing for awhile.

“What time is it?” Alex asks.

Sam checks her phone, “About nine.”

Alex can feel her own pulse hammering in her neck.

“How late do you have your sitter until?”

She catches Sam’s eye in her reflection in the arcade monitor.

“Eleven.”

And Sam doesn’t give Alex much room to turn around, but she does tilt her head down when Alex plays with the bottom of her new haircut. It feels very teenage for their first kiss to be beer flavoured and against the wall of an arcade cabinet, but Alex can feel herself smiling into Sam’s lips and having it returned.

So, this is how Alex ends up back at the hotel with a tall Kryptonian attached to her neck while she wrestles with her door key.

They should probably talk about this. What this means. What the expectations of this are, but once Alex has the door open she’s lifted up and very gently tossed onto her bed.

There’s a dominant insistence with every motion Sam makes, but also a very intense care Alex has only witnessed in Kara. It’s when Sam’s kissing her knee that Alex realizes the cause.

Sam broke that leg once.

Not Sam, but Reign.

And that must be terrifying to her. Not to Alex, she can tell the difference. But, to Sam, to know a list of things she did out of her own control.

It has Alex looking down and seeing a harsh stare she’s only associated with Reign until now, but just that sets a fire in her gut that has her clawing at brown hair and whimpering.

She’s still in her bra, but nothing else, and pulled against Sam with all of her limbs spread open. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Sam’s bared teeth and hard eyes, but can’t focus on much except for the hand pounding between her legs. Two fingers hammering her G-spot, while a palm slaps her clit. She’s trying to be very dignified with her screaming, but the sadist nipping at her ear won’t let her.

“Alex,” Sam says.

Alex tilts her head to make eye contact, curious.

Sam kisses her lower lip, “You’re going to cum now, okay,” she says.

Alex opens her mouth to respond and is cut off with an orgasm. What does end up coming out is some garbled speech and a lot of wetness on she sheets.

“Oh my god,” Alex pants when she comes down.

So, Maggie was a lesbian sex wizard, and Sarah Lance has the most impressive book of historical scarlet letters Alex has ever seen, but neither of them managed to muscle squirting out of her on the first go. It could be a time and place thing. She’s not freshly out of the closet, nervous, drunk, or sad. She’s content if anything.

There’s a kiss on the side of her head that she nuzzles into before being met with a very smug Sam.

“Good?”

“Room for improvement,” Alex teases, starting her payback on Sam’s very nice breasts.

She’s getting acquainted with Sam’s clit when a phone buzzes. They both pause.

“It’s me,” Sam sighs, reaching to the bedside table.

Alex gives her another lick and is met with a half laugh-half sigh.

“Moira, hi, is everything okay?” Sam asks.

Alex settles on stroking her thighs and lower abdomen instead.

“But she is still in the house?” Sam sighs again, “Yeah, okay. No, I’m on my way.”

She rests an arm over her eyes after hanging up.

“Is everything okay?” Alex sits up.

“Ruby’s locked herself in her room. Sitter’s worried that she’s going to be doing something dangerous.”

“She could just want privacy,” Alex offers.

Sam gives her a flat lipped smile. Alex leans in to kiss it, surprised at her own softness.

“I can drive you,” she says.

“I left my car at the office, I’ll take a Lyft.”

“It’s no trouble,” Alex reaches for her jeans.

“I don’t think this is the best situation for Ruby to find out about us like this,” Sam rolls off the bed and heads to the bathroom.

“Like what?” Alex asks, despite having told herself earlier in the evening she wasn’t going to.

“Having sex,” Sam calls back.

Alex contemplates it. Yeah. A shitty night for a teenager is probably not the best time to find out about her mother’s sex life.

She’s feeling a little exposed and insecure when Sam leaves the bathroom, looking freshened up.

“Lyft’s on the way. I had a good time Alex, and I hate to cut and run like this, do you want to come over sometime this week, see Ruby and hang out?”

Alex jumps on that, “I’d love to. I can even help cook.”

“Awesome,” Sam kisses her like a punctuation, “Text me.”

“I hope everything’s okay,” Alex says, walking Sam to the door.

“Thanks, Alex.”

Then she’s left butt ass naked except for her socks and wondering how all of this happened when she didn’t even plan to have sex tonight.

So, she calls her sister.

Kara picks up on the third ring, and Alex is met with the familiar sound of the Mamma Mia soundtrack being lowered from a dull roar.

“Hey, Alex, what’s up?” Kara asks.

Alex thinks about telling her, “Nothing. Quiet night. Wanted to see how you’re doing.”

There’s a long pause in response which means Kara’s probably hiding something or on a very fine brush stroke.

“I’m alright. Having a wine mom night in with the folks, you okay?”

“Yeah, just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Okay. Full disclosure. I have had the weirdest day.”

“Oh, thank god, me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam Arias is a top, fight me.


	4. Follow Ups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Wait, you already slept with her?”
> 
> “Yeah, that’s what some people do when they like each other. They have sex.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since people were surprised at Sex Shark Sam Arias, there will be a blooper reel of all the times that Sam made a pass at an unsuspecting Alex. This was a camel's back broken by a straw scenario. 
> 
> Thanks for the continued support.

“Wait, you already slept with her?”

“Yeah, that’s what some people do when they like each other. They have sex.”

Lena pauses in her routine to school her expression long enough to re-apply lipstick, “I thought you’d given up on Alex.”

“I had. Was gonna let it go, but,” Sam pauses.

Lena looks at her phone, waiting on the answer.

“Let’s just say a wing woman helped me out. Turns out she wasn’t uninterested, just oblivious.”

“I’d say it’s genetic, since Kara, but, you know…” Lena says.

“Nurture it is then,” Sam laughs.

“Still, surprising how quickly you got her into bed.”

“I got tired of waiting for her to notice me flirting.”

“Are you still sore about being denied a New Year’s kiss?” Lena fixes her mascara.

“Yes! Ruby was at a sleepover and everything.”

Lena huffs a little laugh, “Well, I’m happy for you.”

“I’m a busy woman. I have a full time job and a child, I don’t have time to wait for Alex Danvers to figure out a girl’s into her,” Sam’s clearly a little defensive about it.

“I applaud your technique,” Lena says diplomatically, “Was it worth the wait?”

“I never kiss and tell--”

“You are the queen of kiss and tell.”

There’s a self satisfied silence to give Lena time to imagine the smug look on Sam’s look before she clears her throat, “I need a few minutes before the guys from BP come in. I’ll talk to you later,” Sam says.

“Don’t give them an inch,” Lena says.

She hangs up as well.

_ Some people have sex when they like each other. _

Lena shakes her head, touching her temple with just the pad of her finger. It shouldn’t bother her so much. It bothers her that Sam said it as a dig just to bother her.

Truthfully, she had every intent (and still does) of sleeping with Kara when they first met. If only to wipe the self-aggrandizing and contempt off Clark Kent’s face when he found his little assistant had gotten too close to the story.

But, Lena’s actually terrible at following through with the femme fatale thing. She’d feel horrible if some intern got fired because of her. Especially an intern like Kara Danvers. A girl who looked at Lena through thick lenses and clear eyes and saw Lena as herself, not a piece of the Luthor whole. Kara did what she always does, looks for the truth, and the good in everyone.

It wasn’t just the chiseled looks or the soft butch aesthetic that appealed to Lena. It was the way Kara would make all of the hair on her body stand on end.

Lex told her about it once.

_ “The human body has evolved to react when a predator is nearby. Don’t forget that, Lena. They may masquerade as us and trick the eye, but they can’t trick the fight or flight instinct.” _

Kara scares and doesn’t scare her. Kara is capable of peeling an airplane like a banana without exerting much of her energy. She could melt someone’s brain with eye contact, or freeze, then reheat them so quickly their skin turns slack.

She knows this. She’s read some of the reports of what Kryptonian terrorists did during the terror a few years back.

She doesn’t fear Kara, because she knows Kara. Kara is gentle and patient. She’s seen Kara rescue everything from a lost tarantula to a school bus full of children. She’s rescued Lena more than a dozen times now. Lena even knows that if she were to jump off her balcony, Kara would have her before she hit the ground.

That’s not blind faith. That’s science. Results compiled, peer reviewed.

She’s so strong and so kind, Lena’s grateful to have her as a best friend. Even, if that wasn’t what she was aiming for.

It felt too good to be true--as things often are--meeting someone with so much in common and having this instant connection. Kara didn’t play coy or frosty. She was just as eager to spend time with Lena, would show up late and winded to their first date with a string of apologies that made Lena giddy.

Kara wanted to know her. Wanted to be around her.

They found out early that they were both adopted, both had older siblings named Alex who they looked up to. Kara didn’t judge Lena for that. Still loving him despite everything.

_ “Family’s complicated,” _ Kara said with a wistful smile.

Kara has a body for athletics, though swears off sports because she’s not competitive. She has a brain good enough for science, but swears off that because she could never get into it. (An evasive lie that Lena gives her.) No, it’s Kara’s heart that rules her, and her heart is for social justice. For loving and protecting people. For raising her voice to bring attention to others suffering.

Which reminds her, “Reminder: budget meeting about water cleanliness gala.”

Her phone chirps affirmative.

She’s striding out of her bathroom, toeing the tightrope in her louboutins, and met with her favourite image. Kara, with her hair in a tight bun, patterned blouse (adorable snails and tiny mushrooms in white and green) rolled to the elbows, slacks, and a sunny smile.

“Have you eaten yet?” she asks.

Lena stops an inch into Kara’s personal space, ignoring the intimacy of it as she fixes Kara’s collar. They’re breathing the same air, nose to chin. How is she always somehow taller? Not that Lena’s complaining, she does like having to tip back just a little to meet eyes.

“Thanks,” Kara says when Lena pulls away, but stays in orbit.

“Hm.”

“Lunch?”

“Oh, yes,” it’s one of those days where she’s forgotten things like food and liquids besides coffee.

Kara uses her pinkies to clear the errant hairs framing Lena’s face. Lena closes her eyes and nuzzles into the touch.

She isn’t worried about the paparazzi seeing them and taking pictures. Their relationship is so gay that it’s looped all the way back around from ‘#GalPals’ to ‘#BestieGoals’ in GirlCrush magazine. She both loves and hates it because it’s social camouflage and adding insult to injury. They could get married and the media would likely write it off as a best friend ceremony.

Not that Lena’s fantasized about their wedding.

Today.

Yet.

That’s what her private pinterest board is for.

“What’re you thinking about?” Kara boops her on the nose.

Lena sticks her tongue between her teeth and wrinkles her nose at her, “I’m thinking about what I want to eat.”

Kara’s palms go to the soft underside of Lena’s bare arms and scritch gently, “How about Korean?”

“I can’t have kimchi breath this afternoon.”

“You are literally the only person on Earth who always smells great no matter what you eat, trust me on this,” Kara says.

There’s the tell tale swish of her office door opening and they separate.

“Hey, I brought lunch… oh, hey Kara.”

It’s James.

Her boyfriend.

James is her boyfriend, not Kara.

“Great,” Lena fake smiles and takes the offered kiss.

“Hey,” Kara says, equally fake in her pleasant demeanor.

James’s smile is also fake. Lena can’t read him as well as she can Kara, but she does see the ‘why are you always here?’ look he’s shooting her counterpart.

“We were just about to head out for food,” Lena says.

“It’s fine, I just wanted to make sure you ate today. Don’t let me intrude,” Kara says, hiding her eyes behind her frames.

Lena would like it, for once, if Kara were to put her foot down and be territorial. But it’s more likely for James to do that.

She doesn’t know why she stays with him when she has thoughts like this.

Well, actually, yes she does.

Without James there would be no one standing between her and Kara except their own standstill. She doesn't think she could stand it. To be single and waiting for Kara, only to have nothing happen. That would be too close. Too painful, really, to confirm she's not wanted by the one she wants the most. 

Kara's gone and James is there with a tight smile, “See, now you're going to look at me like I've done something wrong,” he says. 

Lena shakes her head and takes the bag, unpacking pasta salad and vegetables. She doesn’t say anything about wanting the taste of Kara’s lip balm, and kimchi on her lips.

 

* * *

“Ms. Luthor, Dr. Magnus would like to see you if you have a moment,” Tess sticks her head in the door. Mentally, Lena makes a note to approve both of them for raises.

James takes his leave with a smooch and a, “I'll see you later.”

He passes Magnus on the way out and she gives him an up and down. 

Magnus looks like she wants to say something about James, but thinks better of it, sipping from her can of Redbull instead. In her other hand is a metal briefcase that must have been fun to pass through security.

“What can I do for you, Dr. Magnus?” Lena asks, smoothing her dress down as she sits.

“You can call me Will,” Magnus sits opposite her, fitting into the chair awkwardly.

“What can I do for you for the next… fifteen minutes, Will?” Lena glances at the clock.

“I won’t use up much of your time. The Eve prototype’s done,” she sets the briefcase down and flicks open the latches.

“You could have called me down to R&D for a demonstration,” Lena says.

“I tried, your secretary told me how busy your schedule is officially, but recommended catching you at the end of lunch.”

Lena smiles and settles in, craning her neck to the open briefcase. Will whistles and the little bot comes to life, hovering between them and above the desk in a glossy candy green colour.

“You didn’t,” Lena says slowly.

“Luthor Green. If we’re going trendy then it doesn’t hurt to have a brand,” Will says.

“Good God,” Lena covers her eyes.

“I was bothered by making our girl here disposable, so I stayed a few nights to work on her chemical compound--”

Lena interrupts, “Please put those hours into your timesheet.”

“I like working extra,” Will says.

“I mean it, I’m putting it down in my planner now, you’ll be compensated in time and money,” Lena insists.

“Uh, thanks Boss, anyway, I made Eve biodegradable. And! And the center of every Eve is a seed for planting! That way if we end up with landfills full of them you and I won’t end up feeling like climate terrorists.”

“We can use that in our marketing. Yes, Luthor Green proceeds going toward conservation causes. I love it, Will,” Lena makes note.

Will’s ears and cheeks go red. She shuffles her feet, then whistles again. Eve does a loop de loop then gets back into the suitcase.

“I can leave the prototype here if you need to pitch it soon,” Will says.

“I’ll send for one within twenty-four hours of approaching the board. That should give you more time to keep testing her,” Lena says.

“Of course,” Will wipes her palms on her pants. She then closes the case and grabs it, still looking unsure.

“Do you need anything else, Will?” Lena asks.

Will stammers a little, “If I had asked you… before James, I--nevermind. Nothing Boss, have a good day.”

And, Lena’s glad Will doesn’t finish that question. Instead, she flashes her best shark smile and dismisses her. 

Her love life is already needlessly complicated for another challenger to present herself.

 

* * *

 

Lena loves smoke. She fell in love with the act of smoking in high school, sneaking cigarettes under the bridge with her black lipstick and her silver cross. It’s always made her feel cool and rebellious. Something that was hers. She thought fresh air and perfume masked it well enough, but Lillian knew, just didn’t care what poison Lena spent her money on. Now that Lena’s therapist is encouraging her to take up less destructive habits, she’s made the change over to vapour. It’s not the same, all white and fluffy instead of the grey coils and that burnt taste on her tongue. Her secret balcony vape break is interrupted when voice from below greets her, “You know nicotine is still bad for you, right?”

She rolls her eyes affectionately, because the lines between Kara and Supergirl have been blurring a lot recently, but this is the most the girl scout has sounded like her best friend.

The sun catches the golden highlights of Supergirl’s hair and her makeup plus a gentle breeze is just so to make her look like a classic movie starlet. All Grace Kelly in her greens, golds, and pinks. Lena holds out a hand that Supergirl takes, letting herself be reeled in and onto the balcony.

“I have a secret, Supergirl,” Lena says, “I do a lot of things that are bad for me.”

“Don’t I know it,” Supergirl says wistfully.

Lena’s chewing on the words, “Would kissing you be a bad thing?” when Supergirl cuts through those thoughts.

“I know it’s not a session day, but I need your help.”

Lena snaps into the place between business and concern.

“What’s wrong?”

“My cousin… he and his wife are having a baby. Except, she’s a human having a--”

“Half-Kryptonian foetus, and you don’t know how long that’s going to be safe for her,” Lena finishes.

“Yes. And--”

“Prenatal exposure to Kryptonite could have adverse effects.” 

Supergirl smiles wryly, “So, you can guess the rest of what I’m going to ask.”

“You want me to be her OBGYN and supply the family with red sun lamps in hope that the minor radiation just reduces any super powered effects without harming their child? And, if not, find a solution?” Lena says.

“Well, you did say you wanted to learn more about Kryptonian genetics. I thought you might enjoy the opportunity. The problem is, if you know my cousin’s spouse’s identity then you’ll know his.”

Lena blinks slowly to hide the rolling of her eyes, “Supergirl, I took an oath as a doctor. But, I’ll sign any NDAs needed to keep your family safe.”

She waits for any kind of hesitation, but instead, she’s treated to Supergirl stroking her cheek, “I know you’d never do anything to hurt them.”

There’s something still bothering her. A melancholy painting the angles of her features.

“Do you want to come in?” Lena asks, setting her vape down.

Supergirl picks it up, inspects it, and takes a puff, “Cherry?”

“Cherry cola,” Lena’s voice is thick with laughter.

“What?” Supergirl blows vapour out of her nose.

“Please let me record this,” Lena grabs her phone.

“Hang on, I learned how to blow smoke rings in college,” Supergirl humble brags.

Lena’s life is so fucking surreal sometimes.

Which is why she now has video on her phone of Supergirl vaping rings around her. 

“What happened to nicotine being bad for you?” Lena asks as they head in.

“I’m built of sturdier stuff,” Supergirl pats her broad chest, making Lena’s heart jump.

They head to the med bay, Supergirl stopping to lean on the table out of habit.

“So, not that we didn’t already know due to Ruby, but humans and kryptonians are sexually compatible,” Lena stammers, “I mean, reproductively compatible.”

“Yeah, weird right?” Supergirl says.

Lena takes careful steps forward, lessening the gap between them.

“I’d be curious to find out how kryptonian reproductive organs compare to human ones. It follows that like sexual reproduction on Earth, there are sperm and eggs or equivalent.”

She’s genuinely gone into nerd mode at this moment, and fails to see how flustered Kara is at the question and the proximity.

“Yeah, well, I think it’s something like that,” Supergirl says.

“Plus, I know Sam’s thinking about having more children. And, you might even want that for yourself one day. We know that human male on kryptonian female works, and vice versa, but have no results on the potency of homosexual reproduction between species,” Lena continues.

Still, she fails to notice Supergirl’s wide eyes and flared nostrils. Instead, she mutters to herself, grabbing a notepad.

“We don’t practice sexual reproduction on Krypton. Or, at least we didn’t on Argo,” Supergirl finally spits out.

Lena looks up from her notebook, “What?”

“Well, we did, but not like… physically? We had a birthing matrix to do it for us. I don’t even know if my parents ever had sex,” Supergirl winces.

That makes Lena put the pen down, “I’m sorry, what?”

“I was harvested from material collected by both parents, I guess it’s easier to say I’m a test tube baby,” Supergirl supplies.

“Fascinating,” Lena strides over for inspection, like it’s somehow going to be written on Kara’s face that she’s never known a mother’s womb.

“Do you have ovum?” Lena asks.

Kara lowers her eyes, “I’m not sure.”

Lena mutters, thinking out loud, “Cross species hybrid with compatible genetic material. Need to study further.”

“What do you need to study further?” Kara crosses her arms over her chest.

“It would be best if I had samples to look at,” Lena says.

“I can talk to Kal about samples, but don't hold your breath. He's not fond of Luthors,” Supergirl says. 

Lena nods, sucking her teeth. How could she forget? Tenuous trust between a Super and a Luthor only exists in this room, and even then, that's been damaged by past actions. 

“I can give you some red sun bulbs. They should work with a standard sixty watt lamp,” she says. 

Lena leads Supergirl through her office to the safe. Supergirl looks uncomfortable and out of place, a much better fixture out in the sun or with a damsel in her arms. 

“You're going to want to stay back,” Lena warns. 

“I won't look at the combination,” Kara covers her eyes to demonstrate. It gets an affectionate chuckle out of Lena. 

“Cute, but no, the Kryptonite fragments from the grenade are in this safe.”

“Oh.”

“Until the leak was found, I didn't feel comfortable disposing of them,” Lena says. Kryptonite is always a touchy subject, but she hopes she's done enough to earn some trust in this situation. 

“You can keep these,” Lena returns with the bulbs safely secured in a case. 

“You don't need them?” Kara asks. 

“I was going to give them to you anyway, I just wanted a safe opportunity to do it,” she omits that she had been keeping extras for Kara's bedroom in the off chance that they were to get intimate there. Not the right time to bring it up. 

“Thank you. They won't fall into the wrong hands,” Kara says. 

They walk together back out to the balcony, feeling at once closer and more distant than they were before. Supergirl shifts her weight, ready to disappear up, up, and away. 

“Tell Lois to call me,” Lena says. 

It's only after she's left that Kara comes back, brow knit in concern. 

“I didn't tell you it was Lois Lane,” she hisses at Lena's retreating figure. 


	5. And Swim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Alex navigate the dreaded stormy waters of FEELINGS for GIRLS, J'onn continues to be a good Dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very tired. Also, I love Lois Lane. This chapter was gonna include the karaoke, but I wanted to update it this week so tune in next time.

The first time Kara felt anything akin to arousal was at an eleventh grade sleepover viewing of Alien. Yes, really. Something about Sigourney Weaver in that tank top and the sleek black exoskeleton of the xenomorph. She was glued to the screen, barely breathing.

“Kara. It's just a movie,” her friend Judy joked.

Alex shot them a questioning look.

“She looks like she's about to pass out,” Judy said.

“I'm just really invested,” Kara said hotly. She then rotated her torso back to the TV and shoved a whole handful of popcorn into her mouth.

“You know we don't see you that way, right?” Alex asked her the day after.

“It's just a movie, Alex. I was impressed by the effects, that's all,” Kara said.

She downloaded a copy onto her laptop, careful to use the good DVD rips on Lemonwire. It only took twenty hours to download, the modem going crazy the whole time.

Then it was on Kara's hard drive to watch whenever she pleased. She could recite the movie by memory, not something anyone else would know until college.

“Hey Kara, do your alien impression!” was a regular occurrence in her dorm, and made Alex do a spit-take the first time she heard it.

Kara demonstrated with exploding out of her own shirt's neckhole with a clacking teeth.  That got Alex to slip beer on herself a second time.

“That's fucking hilarious,” she said.

It was just a joke. It wasn't the only thing Kara would think about to get herself off.

Not the exploding stomach stuff (she and the internet figured that one out). The xenomorph and the excitement that it might just catch Ripley and lay eggs in her. The intimacy of it.

Finding people on the internet who related was relieving. Describing the preference to anyone in her actual life? Impossible. How would she look Alex in the eye long enough to tell her that?

This is also why she never lets her mind wander around J'onn. But, he probably already knows.

The second time Kara felt sexual arousal was around Lena Luthor. Not the first time they met, though that was a start of something. Kara's been muting her sense of smell since she got to Earth. If not with lead glasses then with strong menthol cough drops to avoid gagging when around the most intense scents. Humans are gross. They smell like bags of blood and onion and sweat. Even the ones with inoffensive diets just smell like dirt and blood and perfumes. Humans and garbage and exhaust and smoke are always filling Supergirl's lungs and she just has to adjust and get numb to it. Kara's gotten used to Alex and Eliza's scents, finding them more comforting than disgusting now.

Lena is the first human that hasn't stank. It’s unsettling. Unsettling enough for Kara to dig through Lena’s bathroom in search of some kind of Kryptonian catnip for an explanation. Lena doesn’t just not stink, she smells good, clean and sweet. Her perfume is expensive, her diet is normal, and her bodywash isn’t any different than other humans.

So, Kara just accepts that like in many things, Lena is an exception to other human rules. Because she’s Lena and she’s special.

Kara can’t pin the exact day down, but she does remember the sexual arousal hitting her like a sneak punch to the face. One of the early days of their relationship, Lena showed up in an expensive coat with the invitation for dinner that Kara had forgotten.

“We can reschedule?” Lena said, fiddling with a pen on Kara’s desk.

She was playing it off as being fine, but it was not fine. Kara grabbed her coat, “No need, let me get my coat.”

And yeah, maybe she was rocking the Country Kent look with saddle pants and a plaid shirt rolled up to the elbows, but that didn’t give Lena any right to look at her like she was the cowboy pinup month of her calendar. Kara fiddled with her glasses nervously and it was enough to get a mouthful of arousal scent coming from the woman waiting for her. Lena had her hands dug deeply into her pockets and kept glancing at Kara out of the corner of her eye.

It knocked Kara on her ass because it wasn’t the first time seeing Lena, but it was the first time she saw Lena as more than an aggressively friendly rich woman. Lena was interested. She was beautiful, lonely, and she wanted Kara.

There was something about that. The being desired by someone desirable. Eligible Bachelorette Lena Luthor was looking at Kara Danvers like she was a snack. It felt empowering and warming all at once. But, Kara could still crush Lena like a pop can, physically and emotionally. Lena played tough, but was so soft at the centre. So easy for Kara to bruise. So, she put the friend breaks on hard, ready to solve this trolley problem in the best possible way. Stop the trolley.

But, then at dinner, Lena took her coat off to reveal a black dress with a dipping neckline exposing creamy cleavage. Kara felt the physical ‘oh no’ for the first time, a hit to the gut that told her that friendzoning Lena might prove more difficult than previously anticipated.

It was confirmed the next day when Kara woke up from a dream a panty clad Lena Luthor running through a dark space station, Kara in slow, predatory pursuit. And, Kara felt the difference, the part of her anatomy that separated her from the humans, stirring at the thought of pinning Lena to the wall of said spaceship and tearing those panties to shreds.

She sat up in bed, horrified and aroused. Sexual thoughts weren’t her thing. Outside of Red Kryptonite rage and her heavy bag(car) days at the gym, Kara did her best to distance herself from anything outside of a PG rating.

So, she tried avoiding Lena, but Lena Luthor is not a woman to be avoided. There’s confidence covering loneliness to all of Lena’s pursuit of Kara, and Kara can’t ignore someone in pain, so instead of distancing herself, they ended up locked in each other’s orbit. And, it’s actually nice, because she’s only been this close to Alex before. Lena’s the first person who she’s had a platonic Sunday nap with. They eat together more often than not, and exist in comfortable silences. She’s seen puffy faced post-tears, and fuzzy morning Lena. She loves fussy sick Lena and out of breath gym Lena.

She kept waiting for some shoe to drop. For the little red flags about Lena’s alien suspicion to grow into big red flags. Instead, they just found more in common. Little things about Lena grew into cute quirks. They grew in comfort around each other, to the point of back scratching and bra fixing. And, not once have they kissed each other on the mouth. Which, isn’t something Kara would think she’d want once she stuffed all of those sexual feelings into a box, threw that box into the ocean, and then destroyed all evidence. It wasn’t enough, and sometimes her heart will jump when a cheek kiss will turn into a corner of the mouth kiss. Or, when their legs tangle together just right during a couch cuddle.

Or, she'll have another dream. One different, but hitting all of the same beats.  _ The glass balcony doors of L-Corp are open, it’s dark enough for Kara to blend in with the night sky, and Lena’s working late. _

_ “Miss Luthor,” Supergirl greets. _

_ “Supergirl,” Lena’s voice is coy and cautious. _

_ Her brain doesn’t improvise much more dialogue than that. Instead, it skips to the part where she’s hiking Lena’s dress up her waist and pulling her own tights down. Lena gasps as Kara thrusts into her and locks her legs behind Kara’s waist at the knee. Rao, she’s so soft. She smells so nice. Unbidden, Kara opens her mouth and finds the sweet skin on the crook of Lena’s neck. She bites down until her mouth fills with a coppery taste and Lena clenches around her. _

This is the dream that requires Kara is clean the sheets in shame afterwards. Getting off at thoughts of a friend is one thing, going full Edward Cullen is another.

And, she avoids the burning gaze of J’onn because she cannot get her mental unrest out for at least two days.

 

* * *

 

Lois isn’t jazzed about the idea of Muppet Baby Luthor poking around her body, but Mrs. Danvers says she only does horse births, and Alex is out of town (still). Clark spends the whole session in the corner of the room with a sour expression. Li'l Luthor doesn’t look nearly as rich or intimidating in floral scrubs and pink crocs. Her hair is even up in a scrunchie. Clearly a costume used to reduce her threat level. A working tactic, because Lois has a sense that she could take her. The kid’s propped up on caffeine and antidepressants. She’s frumpy and chagrined as the goo makes a fart noise when she squirts it on Lois’s stomach.

“You’ve been taking your neonatal vitamins?” her voice cracks.

“Yup,” Lois pops the ‘p’.

“Good, good,” Lena keeps nodding.

She has no idea what she’s doing, does she?

“Have you been noticing any fatigue or nausea from the red sun lamps?” Lena asks.

That gets Clark’s hackles up, “Should she? Is that the kind of equipment you gave us?”

Lois rolls her eyes, “Down, Smallville. I don’t know if I’m any more or less tired and barf-y than other pregnant women.”

Lena scribbles something onto a notepad.

“We’re still figuring out the gestation period for a Kryptonian foetus. Our other subject had the standard human ten months, but she is a Kryptonian that carried a human hybrid to term, so there’s still margin for error. If the pregnancy exceeds that period then we’ll have to trigger labour, even prematurely, and gestate them for the remainder in an incubator,” Lena says, snapping into professional mode.

“I’m sorry, what?” Clark balks.

“If it exceeds ten months then it will be a danger for your wife,” Lena clicks her pen as she replies.

Clark shoots Lois a stricken look. She reaches out for his hand, squeezing it, “Relax.”

“In the meantime, be very cautious with the pregnancy. Vaginal stretching is recommended to reduce labour tearing, have you been experiencing any swelling around the ankles?” Lena says.

“Is vaginal stretching what it sounds like?” Lois asks.

“A water based lubricant, or a vegetable oil are recommended,” all the muscles in Lena's neck flex, “I’ve heard it can be a good bonding activity for couples.”

Clark turns scarlet. Lena writes a note about Kryptonians being red blooded and the implications of that.

“Ready to turn me into a hand puppet, Darling?” Lois jokes.

Lena snorts so hard from laughter that she feels her back crack. Lois shoots Clark her best shit eating grin, gaining more power from his mortification.

It’s Lena who comes to the rescue, “The baby looks healthy so far. I’m just going to print off the ultrasound pictures for you to take home.”

Clark follows her out into the hall, all puffed up in his super suit. Like, that’s enough to hide the fact that he’s there with Clark Kent’s wife. He works his jaw in circles, searching for the words.

“We’re only here because Supergirl trusts you,” he says.

“Well, that and your wife needs someone with an education in medicine to look after her,” Lena replies with no bite.

He’s quiet again, “I don’t know why you two keep up this charade if you know.”

Lena hands him pictures of his son, “Because it’s less complicated this way,” and shrugs.

Clark purses his lips, then nods, “Thank you, Doctor.”

 

* * *

 

Ruby doesn't run to Alex when she picks her up from school. No, she plays it school and waits until they're in the car to throw her arms around her.

“What are you doing here?” Ruby asks.

“Well, for starters, I have all of this milkshake money and no one to spend it on. Do you have any suggestions?” Alex says.

Ruby's not enough of a surly teenager to reject a free milkshake. Alex lets her pick the music as they drive to a diner Kara recommended. The kind of fifties Americana diner with a jukebox and rotating cakes and pies behind the counter. Alex grimaces when she sees the pictures of the Burger Challenge Winners. There sit Clark and Kara grinning from ear to ear.

Things that matter are always the hardest to ask or say. Like love confessions and coming out. This is, in a way, both things. It feels too soon. If things sour with Alex and Sam, then she doesn't want Ruby caught in between. And, yeah, she and Sam agreed for that not to happen, but it's all hypothetical now.

Once she's got an Oreo milkshake in front of her, Ruby's tune changes. Her shoulders go up and her brows lower, “Are you just here for the week?”

Alex fiddles with her own straw, “Yeah, well, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

Ruby sulks around her straw, closing off.

Alex boots her shoe gently, “This is hard, so bear with me, okay?”

Ruby huffs.

A fire truck goes wailing by. Alex’s head shoots up reflexively, looking for alien activity. She checks her phone. No notifications. Not her circus, not her burning clown car.

Ruby clears her throat.

“Your mom and I have been talking, about, uh, maybe me coming over and visiting more and uhh,” Alex scratches her head, avoiding eye contact, “And what that means for you and for… us.”

“Us?”

“How do… how would you feel about me dating your mom?” Alex winces on that delivery.

Ruby blinks at her, “Wait, really? You finally asked her out?”

“I--what? No, she asked me out.”

Ruby bursts out laughing, “Okay, I believe it now.”

“Ouch! What gives?” Alex puts on faux offense.

“You're totally clueless, Alex. But, I guess you're allowed to date my mom. Just don't break her heart or I'll break your knees.”

“Wow, okay, I accept your terms, but what's with the violence?”

“I dunno, must've learned it somewhere…” Ruby sasses.

But, as hard as she's trying, she can't hide the intensity of her smile.

“Are you gonna watch The Bachelor with us?”

“Am I gonna--who do you think I am?”

 

* * *

 

Ruby helps Alex pick out dinner then plays prep cook. There's a layer of anxiety and expectation. It's weird, because if it was just a date with Sam she'd try and cook something sexy and impressive. A lobster bisque or at the very least beef bourgogne, but, she's cooking for a family, so her thoughts are in hearty and economical.

She ends up splitting the difference with chicken Alfredo, Caesar salad, and all the garlic bread Ruby wants. They’re at the noodle stage and spreading Ruby’s math books out across the kitchen table when Sam gets home.

“Smells good,” she announces, shedding her blazer.

Alex shoots her a shy smile, trying not to have the effects of their previous encounter written all over her face. She can feel Ruby’s scrutiny. Then she has a tall Kryptonian blocking her view of the cupboards. Sam leans close enough to brush the top of Alex’s head with her nose while grabbing a glass. She leaves Alex to shiver at the loss of her heat while she gives Ruby a greeting cheek kiss.

Alex wants a kiss on the cheek.

“Want a beer?” Sam asks.

“Yes!” Ruby says.

Alex snorts, “Nice try,” she and Sam say at the same time.

“Oh no,” Ruby says.

Alex and Sam exchange an amused look.

“There’s two of them now,” Ruby whispers.

“I will take a beer, by the way,” Alex says.

She doesn’t really need to because Sam’s already popping off a cap and handing the bottle to her. Woman after her own heart.

That hits Alex with surprising force due to the actual truth of it. Sam does want her. Enough to expose their relationship to Ruby like this.

“Does that mean you’re spending the night?” Ruby asks.

Alex flounders, cheeks colouring as she glances at Sam. She’s met with a wolfish grin and no offer to help her out of the hole.

“I can have one drink and be able to drive,” Alex justifies lamely.

“Ruby, go wash up,” Sam says.

“If you want privacy you can just ask, you don’t need me washing up twenty minutes early,” Ruby says.

Sam rolls her eyes. Ruby does obey though, making kissing noises as she leaves. Alex hunches her shoulders and focuses on stirring pasta.

Then there’s a hand on her hip and another sliding over her womb. She doesn’t startle, but instead relaxes into the embrace.

“You are welcome to stay the night,” Sam says.

“I think we might be living a lesbian stereotype right now,” Alex jokes.

“Does that bother you?” Sam asks.

Alex swallows, “I don’t want to rush into things and hurt you or Ruby.”

“After having an alien brain parasite, my perspective on rushing in have changed,” Sam shrugs, sipping her own beer.

“How so?” Alex can guess, but she wants to hear it.

“I don’t have time to waste on wondering what could have been. I’d rather five minutes of happiness than to play it safe and be miserable.”

“That last part is my whole life though,” Alex half-jokes.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Sam says.

Alex tucks her hair behind her ears and turns off the water. She rocks forward on her toes, catching Sam on the lower lip. The kiss is nice, warm, and comforting. There isn’t the heat from the previous night, but it’s there, just under the surface. They separate at Ruby's approaching footsteps, Alex's cheeks staying ruddy with the steam coming off the pasta.

Conversation comes easily over dinner, despite everyone at the table avoiding talking about work or school. Ruby's still in a better mood while they listen to  _ The Bachelor  _ over the sound of the dishwasher. Alex wonders if this is what she's been missing from her spot against Sam's shoulder, Ruby's feet wedged under her thigh.

Ruby gets up and leaves, phone in hand.

“Is your homework done?” Sam asks.

Ruby shoots her a thumbs up.

“She’s a good kid,” Alex leans back against the couch, feeling her eyes roll back in her head and dreading the ride home.

“I meant it when I said you could spend the night, I’ll even take the couch if you don’t want to share a bed. No funny business, I swear.”

“I like funny business,” Alex’s head lolls on the sofa.

Sam’s dimples show with her smile as she dots a kiss on Alex’s forehead, “Maybe not tonight.”

“I’ve been so tired this week,” Alex yawns.

“Come on, let’s go to bed,” Sam turns the TV off and brings their glasses into the kitchen.

Alex hovers between kitchen and living room, feeling unsure of what her next step should be.

“I didn’t bring sleep clothes,” she says.

“You can borrow something of mine, might be a bit long on you,” Sam smirks.

Alex rolls her eyes and follows Sam by the hand upstairs to her bedroom.

“Can I shower?” Alex asks.

“Yeah, I’ll set up in here,” Sam says.

Alex bites her lip and Sam pauses in fluffing pillows.

“Unless you’d like some company?” Sam offers.

Alex rocks on her heels, on one hand, having some privacy to compose herself and think about her next step. On the other hand, she’s been wet since dinner, and she knows a shower stream covers sex noises better than walls that may be thin enough for Ruby to hear.

She doesn’t let herself second guess, and ends up enjoying the sight of shower droplets clinging to Sam’s eyelashes from her spot against her, hand working between Sam’s legs. They don’t speak, don’t cry out, just hard and sharp breaths turned into kisses. Alex searches Sam for that unyielding hardness that Kara has. The way that hugging Kara is like being embraced by a very affectionate wrecking ball. Sam is hard, but she’s pliable. Human soft. It’s just the sharpness of her teeth and that hard light behind her eyes that gives her away. It’s that same intensity that brings Alex over the edge, panting in Sam’s ear, Sam presses her nose to Alex’s cheek. Sex turns into a loose embrace. It’s weird, feeling so safe, but so unsure. So open and vulnerable. Maggie made Alex feel strong. Sam makes Alex feel human and fragile. But, she doesn’t dislike it. It’s like the person who she’s been, the one with a deathwish throwing herself in front of blows meant for Kara is awakening to her own limitations. To who she’d leave behind if she didn’t make it home after a fight.

“You can bring your bags over from the hotel tomorrow,” Sam says, toweling her hair before her body.

“They’ve already paid for the room,” Alex protests meekly.

She follows Sam out of the bathroom and accepts the offered T-shirt and shorts, dressing with wet hair.

“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I’m sorry, that sounded pressure-y.”

“Can I think about it? I’m, uh, a little gunshy,” Alex admits.

“Can’t be. The Alex Danvers I know loves guns.”

“Like my Republican father before me,” Alex says.

Sam stops to squint at that.

Alex chuckles and shrugs, “It’s true. The old man voted for Reagan and Bush.”

Sam freezes, waiting for an indication on an appropriate reaction.

“People are weird like that. I can see why, even if he came back, Mom’s done with their marriage. Sorry, I’m just brain dumping weird baggage. My mom got together with my old boss, and their like, the best California parents ever and I think I’m okay with it, but I think about it at least once a day, but I still miss my dad? Despite all his faults, you know? Like, Reagan. AIDs Reagan. I’m gay.”

“My mom kicked me out when I was a pregnant teenager, and instead of a dad my mom just had a bunch of alcoholic boyfriends who made comments about my body.”

Alex sucks her teeth. They’re standing on opposite sides of the bed, in opposing colours (Sam in white, Alex in black) and staring each other down with new clarity.

“I still like you, even with the context,” Sam says.

“Me too. I like you, I mean. I’m sorry growing up sucked,” Alex feels ashamed for her own comparatively blessed adolescence.

“I like to think that it all lead me to here, so it can’t be the worst thing,” with that, Sam pulls back the covers and climbs into bed.

Alex joins her, using her hand to cup the light of her phone as the lamp goes out. Tomorrow’s meeting has been rescheduled to nine, instead of six. A whole three more hours of sleep. Or, time for her to go back to the hotel and change.

“What time does Ruby need to go to school?” Alex asks.

“Seven-thirty,” Sam says through a yawn, checking her own email on an iPad.

“Can I take her?” Alex asks

“We’ll have to ask her tomorrow morning,” Sam yawns again.

Alex sets her phone aside and tries to relax into sleep.

Sleeping in a strange bed is always difficult. Let alone, sleep with a new lover. Getting used to someone else’s heat and breath rhyt--

Alex snores.

 

* * *

 

People at the office liked Kara a lot better when she was Cat Grant's kicked puppy. Now her relationship with Lena and past relationship with James have given her a reputation for sleeping her way into cozy promotions and the best assignments. It was Snapper's same attitude, she just didn't catch on. Now it sticks to her like a ‘kick me’ sign she just can't peel off. Don't rely on Danvers to get her story done in time, she might disappear for two days and come back reeking of Luthor perfume.

So, she's used to seeing her byline on low priority stories. Culture festivals a month in advance. Updates to city policy. Fluff pieces on animal friendships. And, it's fine. She may be a hard hitting superhero, but she's no hard hitting journalist.

It's a self fulfilling prophecy. Her co-workers don't speak to her, so she always visits Lena or Alex for lunch, giving her the stuck up sugarbaby reputation she's been trying to shake.

“Nice gala, Danvers,” Ingrid says, voice blunt with accusation.

“I just reported the news, someone chose to take action about it,” Kara half lies.

She's not going to concede asking for Lena's help. And she's not going to feel guilty about using her privilege to help those in need.

Okay, so that's a lie. It bugs her during her after work bus ride, and it bothers her when she gets home in a huff. It keeps her face grumpy when she answers a call about a warehouse fire downtown. Now, warehouse fires are often Trojan horses for other shenanigans. Some alien with fire powers accidentally or purposefully got near an oil can. Or, some illegal weapons tech wasn't vented properly and melted half the block. Rarely is a warehouse fire just a warehouse fire.

So, J'onn shows up because he has time and strength in numbers. This is how Kara ends up in a fist fight with a dragon. Well, not technically a dragon, but a scaly fire breathing alien. She gets to make references to Barney and Puff the Magic Dragon, so it's basically the best thing ever. He's got a mean right hook that catches her on the jaw, making it crack and her teeth rattle. Kara's always wanted to do the cool neck crack and mouth wipe. She really loves fighting. Astra called her a 'little Flamebird’ when she was in the feral stage of childhood. It was Alura who used books and brushes to channel that instinct into law and art, but it's always there. Kara's a born scrapper and she feels a childish glee as she lifts the dragon by the nose and throws him into a dumpster.

She poses, hair fluffed and fists on her hips as he's taken away in cuffs.  

“How're you doing?” J'onn asks after they've left.

“I wish I could punch all of my problems that hard,” she says, landing on a rooftop.

“Got a lot?” he probes.

“Got some stuff on my mind,” Kara evades.

“You don't have to tell me,” he says in that patient way that also implies he already knows.

“Just like, doubting my life and my choices,” Kara shrugs.

“Kara,” his voice softens, “You do so much good for this world, both in the suit and out of it.”

“I know,” she nods, “Just the granular failures piling up. Clark's still mad about having to take Lois to see Lena, and I wonder if I'll ever have a career outside of,” she gestures vaguely around, “All this.”

“Yes, but you'd handle those problems with a smile and can do attitude if there weren't other, bigger problems also bothering you.”

Kara groans and walks in a circle before planting her forehead on his chest and mumbling into it.

“My mom's alive and I should be happy about it, but instead I'm all angry and confused. My whole life, I've been one of the last of my species, knowing I will never get to grow up and know my mother. Now she's a phone call away and that's terrifying! I can ask follow up questions on things I assumed I'd never get closure for!”

He wraps his arms around her, carefully avoiding pinning her hair. She exhales, sighing out her grief as he rubs slow circles on her back.

“You know what you need?” he says.

“To be listened to and not have someone try and ‘fix’ my problems?” Kara grumps.

“I was going to say a trip to the beach,” J’onn says.

It’s a ritual she’s been doing since she was a little girl. Well, since she got to Earth. Eliza's house on the coast gave her access to Earth's greatest gift. The ocean. The pacific ocean is a big gaping hole full of water, life, and unspeakable horror. It's a lot like the cosmos that way, and if, one drives far enough from city lights, to where the boardwalks turn to beaches and there are no patrolmen shooing people away from enjoying the freedom of their own ecosystem, then the sea turns as black as the sky above. A mirror reflection of everything so far away.

Eliza takes the beach blanket out of the trunk, shivering in the chill Northern California nighttime.

"Everyone say 'hi', I'm going to record a video for Alex," Eliza says.

She films it vertically, and her phone is older so the night vision is poor. She frowns at it, "Okay, so, she's getting a black video with our voices and the ocean."

"Perfect," Kara says, shedding her shorts and hoodie before taking off at a run towards the surf.

J'onn helps Eliza set up the dry station before joining Kara. She's floated out far enough to be over her head. He swims under her, breaking surface by her arm.

Kara's dripping with starlight as she turns to him, "You're right, I did need this."

"Makes everything else seem small, right?" he turns green, "When I first came to Earth, I spent days on the beach just staring at the ocean. We had seas on Mars, but nothing this big or vibrant."

"You're big and vibrant," Kara retorts.

It gets a smile.

"I need to talk to my mom," Kara sighs.

He stays silent, a witness to her internal monologue.

"And, I need to talk to Lena. Not sure which of those will come first."

"Maybe try choosing happiness," he advises.

Kara splashes him with a swat, "Yeah, maybe."

She exhales noisily, "I just don't want things to change for the worse."

"That's sadly what happens when you change. Things change with you," J'onn says.

"Talking to a hundred year-old shapeshifter," Kara splashes her own face with water.

She disappears beneath the waves, tugging at J'onn's leg as she glides past. He turns into a shark and gives chase around the bay. Kara shrieks and giggles, taking the role of distressed damsel.

On the shore, she can see Eliza reading her kindle by headlamp light, swatting at the gathering moths.

They join her after half an hour of the 'Jaws Game'. Kara wraps herself in a big fluffy towel and tears open the bag of chips, shoveling them into her mouth as she checks her phone. Lootcrate will not stop sending her junk emails. Alex hasn't been online in hours. Cat Grant liked her tweet about National City foot traffic being very slow. Lena sent her the usual 'good night, Kara' text. She fires one back, though pretty sure Lena is a liar who is still up and working. A text arrives, unbidden, from her coworker, Jamie. He's sweet on her, but in the 'invite Kara to things' way, not yet feeling entitled to her time. It's an invitation to karaoke on Friday night. Kara's thumb hovers over reply.

Okay, game plan.

Talk to Mom. Talk to Lena. No, talk to Lena, then talk to Mom. Wait, no, if she talks to Lena first then she might be going half-cocked into the talk with Lena. She needs the talk with Lena to be the carrot after the deeply uncomfortable stick of having 'the talk' with Alura.

Somewhere in there, she's also going to slay at karaoke, because if her coworkers aren't impressed by her reporting, they can at least be impressed by her other non-super talents.

She types out her 'yeah, of course!' then glances up to see her parents cuddling under the stars. J'onn's taken the kindle, reading the book out loud. His voice rumbles low in his chest, easily making Kara's eyelids feel heavy.

Before they pack up, she takes out her phone to compose a text to Lena. How does one schedule an important talk with someone without freaking them out? Kara gets hives whenever she has a review at work. She decides to Trojan horse it in with an invitation to brunch on Sunday. Nothing out of the ordinary.

She's bitten a lot of literal bullets, she just hopes that finally talking to Lena about everything is only marginally harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave me detailed thoughts of your experience reading this. The actual content of the story. What separates this from other SuperCorp fic for you. Why you clicked this one instead of the other stories.


	6. Nothing Interesting Happens in this Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex calls her parents and Kara goes to Karaoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ever set out to write something with one thing in mind, but then it doesn't turn out that way? Weird, right?  
> Please let me know in the comments below:  
> What you thought of this chapter.   
> What you like about this series so far, and your own journey into alienfucker territory. 
> 
> You guys are great. Thanks for reading.

Alex packs. 

Alex unpacks. 

She has more to unpack than this suitcase, but she kind of resents it all at the moment. 

Pros of staying with Sam: better food, company in the evening, hanging out with Ruby, sex. Okay, more than sex. Great sex, and romantic intimacy. Like, yeah she's getting thoroughly fucked, but she's also being spooned and having her hair played with. 

Cons of staying with Sam: they're moving super fast, Alex likes her independence, it will make leaving harder. 

That's really what this boils down to. She lives on the other side of the country and this is gonna be fucking hard on a teenage Ruby. Alex doesn't want to become a fixture of the Arias household only to leave three days later. 

She sighs, flopping down on her bed. Maggie was right about one thing. Getting kids into the mix complicates everything.

She slides her phone out of her pocket and scrolls through her contacts. Kara is the first impulse, but part of her is playing keepaway with details of her relationship with Sam. Kara's too invested. Too smug. Too meddling in her damn love life. 

J'onn? He's ripe with fatherly wisdom and emotional awareness. And, his own situation is actually pretty close to her own. 

She dials. He picks up on the second ring. 

“Alex?” he's on alert. 

“Hey, how's it going?” she stalls and lets him know the casual nature of the call. 

His voice relaxes, “Good. We're antiquing.”

“Wow, you guys are wild.”

“Your mother is looking for a new teapot.”

“What kind of teapot?”

“Alex, what are you really calling about?”

“Well, now I need to know about the teapot.”

“She's looking for something art nouveau, what's wrong?”

Alex screws her face up to hold back tears, “I think I'm in over my head.”

She hears Eliza's voice faintly over J'onn's end. He covers the receiver as he responds. There's a back and forth then the tinkling of a bell. 

“Do you need me to come and get you?” he asks. 

Alex sniffs, “No.”

“How about you start from the beginning,” he says. 

“It's uh, Sam--”

He goes back into panic mode, “Has Reign returned?”

“No,” Alex rubs the bridge of her nose, “Sam and I are kind of dating.”

There's a pause, “Oh. Congratulations.”

Alex sucks her teeth. 

“Unless you don't want to be dating?”

“I don't know?”

“Well, do you like her?”

“Yes.”

“Does she make you happy?”

“Yeah, but….”

He waits.

Alex searches for the right words. 

“It feels too easy.”

“Alex, I'm going to caution you on not using the word 'easy’ when describing a romantic partner,” he says. 

Alex slaps her own forehead. 

“Who's easy?” comes Eliza's faint voice. 

“I'm giving your mother the phone.”

“J'onn don't do this to me,” Alex pleads. 

Too late. 

“Alex, what's wrong?” Eliza asks. 

So, Alex takes a deep breath and says,  _ fuck it. _

“I’m seeing someone, and I like her, but it feels… wrong somehow.”

“Is she underage?”

“Mom!”

“A mother has to ask.”

“She really does not!” Alex regrets this call, but presses ahead, “We're both adults. She's great. She's kind and funny and she's really interested in me.”

Eliza makes a noise of understanding. 

“What?”

“No, I’m not going to say it. It’ll upset you.”

“Well, now I’ve gotta hear it, Mom.”

Eliza hesitates before saying it, “You feel too wanted.”

The sound of traffic going by pollutes their conversation. 

“Mom, can you find somewhere quiet to talk?”

“I can't hear you, Sweetheart.”

So, Alex lies there waiting for traffic to die down.

“Where were we? Yes. You haven't had to pursue this woman, right?” Eliza says. 

“Well, no,” Alex feels the deep kind of shame blush only a parent can bring on. 

“It doesn't feel like Maggie right?”

“N-no.”

“Well, Margareta was never as interested in you as you were in her,” Eliza says as if she's ordering ice cream off a menu. 

That hits like a fist to the nose.

“I’m sorry?” Alex feels her voice raising.

“See, I knew it would upset you.”

“Yeah, shit Mom, telling me my ex didn’t love me makes me feel just great!”

“I never said Maggie didn’t love you. Don’t put words in my mouth. You had to win her over, though, didn’t you? I’m sorry for my part in you feeling unworthy of love, Alex. I never meant to raise you feeling that you’d need to convince people to see your worth.”

Alex can’t speak because she’s choking on tears, instead, she punches the wall and hisses at the pain in her fist.

“Are you okay?” Eliza asks.

Alex stares at the wall, glad no one can see her ugly cry face.

“Alexandra?”

J’onn wrestles the phone back from Eliza, “Hey.”

Alex does not respond.

“Alex, that might not have been the most delicate way to confront some intergenerational intimacy issues,” he says diplomatically.

“No, it’s, uh, fine,” she sniffs hard and wipes at her eyes.

“We just want to see you flourish with someone who sees you for how special you are,” he says.

“I gotta go.”

“Alex.”

She hangs up and does not throw her phone, no matter how badly she wants to.

She does through a towel though.

Alex screams into her pillow, lies on the bed, feeling the tear tracks hugging the sides of her head until they stop, and then Alex makes a decision.

She packs her suitcase.

Sam meets her at the door, “We expected you sooner, I sent a bunch of texts. Everything okay?”

Then Sam takes a second look at Alex barely holding it together with duct tape.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. My mother.”

“Do I need to fight your mom? I may look like a mild mannered COO, but these are the hands of a killer,” Sam holds up her hands for emphasis.

She’s not wrong. It’s an incredibly dark joke all things considered. Alex loses it laughing and buries her face in Sam’s chest.

Sam catches Alex and tugs her into a proper hug, “Ruby, come help me squish the sadness out of Alex.”

Ruby comes, phone still in hand and one earbud in, but helps squish Alex.

Alex loves and hates it because this is starting to feel alarmingly like home.

 

* * *

 

The condensation of her glass is interrupted by the marks her fingers leave. The world around her is loud and raucous. So much noise and so little company. Ingrid's been barely speaking to her all night. She’s the youngest editor at CatCo and reminds Kara of Alex. Then there’s Brenda, who nice enough to be friendly, but Brenda considers them the 'Office Libra Sisters' so at least they have that in common. Jamie and Curtis are seated at the other end. Curtis gives Kara the ‘gay nod’ in the elevator and she’s started giving it back.

“It’s so great to be out drinking with people my own age, my roommate’s great but she’s in her mid thirties and all her friends talk about real estate and plastic garages. I can’t relate,” Brenda says.

Kara always fails to mention that she's technically in her fifties. Chronologically, anyway, but even if she was her age she wouldn't look much different. 

“This is the roommate who’s keto and does improv?” Ingrid asks.

“No, that’s my brother….”

Kara can feel herself drifting off from the conversation in a dissociative spell. Luckily, the waitress comes back around for another drink order. She eyes Kara's half empty beer and leans in close, “We have stronger drinks that might be more your speed.”

Kara gives a polite smile, “I'm good.”

But the waitress is leaning close enough to blink a second pair of eyelids and Kara understands the offer. Getting actually tipsy might make this more bearable. 

“There's this blue drink…” Kara mumbles. 

“I know just the one,” the waitress leaves with a little sashay. 

“Working that Danvers charm,” Brenda slides in to rib here. 

“There is no charm,” Kara laughs, her face a mask of a smile. 

She hopes the conversation doesn't make it to Jamie or Ingrid's ears because she is here to smile and nod and she'd really like this not to turn into A Thing. And Jamie will fall all over himself talking about her charm, whereas Ingrid will turn it into an interrogation. No, she didn’t sleep with Cat, or James, or Lena. She’s just got the biggest friend energy on the planet.

Mercifully, the karaoke room clears out and they're given their time slot. 

Kara's drink comes to her in a mason jar full of Swedish Fish and rosemary and she can’t help but laugh. Of course. That’s how they’d disguise a blue alien drink.

“Alright, everyone, a toast to CatCo,” Curtis says with a heavy wink.

Kara raises her fishbowl to clink, making brief eye contact and saying little. Brenda’s already scrolling through the songs on the screen.

“Oooh, they have Ariana Grande!” she says.

Ingrid takes the pad and leads them in a rousing rendition of  _ What’s Up?  _ By Four Non Blondes. Kara can’t help but show off at the ‘heyyy-aaayyy-aaayyyy’ and it gets the attention she’s been waiting for.

“Damn, Danvers, you’ve got some pipes on you!”

And, Kara’s just tipsy enough to let it get to her head. She shares the mic, but goes off on  _ Mr. Brightside.  _ She really fucking feels Mr. Brightside right now, okay? She’s coming out of her cage, and SHE’S BEEN DOING JUST FINE. Jealousy has been turning her saints into the sea, okay? Maybe she is touching his chest now? Maybe, just maybe, James is taking off Lena’s dress right now, okay?

James shouldn’t be taking Lena’s dress off. No, that’s Kara’s job, okay? She’s never done it, but she has a whole fucking resume of work experience in physical intimacy with Lena Luthor. She could fill a book with the things she’d do. She’d leave the hook at the top of the dress together--to make it easier to unzip (she’d lie), but it’d really be to keep the dress on just a little longer while she made a trail of kisses down the notches of Lena’s spine. Maybe Lena’d be wearing a bra, maybe not, maybe she’d unhook that too and kiss the red marks left on Lena’s skin. Then once the zipper’s down to the small of Lena’s back, she’d go back to that clasp and watch the dress melt off Lena like hot wax. 

And, it doesn’t even need to be a dress. Okay, it’s a dress in the song, but she’d shuck Lena like a cob of corn even if she was in her Miss Piggy pajama pants and Kara’s college sweater. Rao, when did she give Lena her college sweater? Why aren’t they dating? Well, they are dating in all ways except for the sexy ones.

Kara’s standing there panting and hand combing her hair as her coworkers stare at her with wide eyes. Crap, she kinda blacked out there. She assess the damage. No missing roof. No laser burn marks. Nothing frozen or broken.

“Wow, hard to follow that,” Curtis reaches gingerly for the mic.

“I uh, just really like The Killers,” Kara sits down and sips her drink.

One hour bleeds into two, then three, and Rao, their room tab isn’t cheap, but she’s belting along to  _ Unwritten  _ and on her third blue drink and feeling really good.

So good she’s on top of the world. Up, up, and away.

Alex’s voice is in her head telling her:  _ “Loose lips sink planetary ships, Kara.” _

And her jaw snaps shut in the middle of an anecdote about breaking an alien’s hand.

“And…?” Brenda prompts, on bated breath.

“And… then our sensei called the match and I got off him,” Kara rubs her eyebrow, suddenly very self-aware.

“I should get going, I’ve got, um, an early brunch with my parents tomorrow.”

The room spins when she stands. Oh dear. Kara licks her lips, doing the wallet, keys, phone dance and says, “I gotta pay my bill.”

“Yeah, I should pack it in too,” Jamie says with hope in his voice.

_ Not gonna happen.  _ Kara thinks loudly.

She swears in Kryptonian as she knocks over an empty bottle and replaces it without much thought.

Ingrid’s saying something like, “Hey, whose glass is this--” when she closes the door.

They ring her up at the counter and there is a numeric code on her receipt. Weird. She stuffs it in her pocket alongside three lychee candies and her wallet. The restaurant’s suddenly too much smell and noise, so she ducks outside for some air and then finds herself at Lena’s door.

Huh.

Did she teleport here? She’s pretty sure that’s not in her power set. If it were then going to visit her mom would be easier. Fuck, she still needs to have ‘the talk’ with Alura.

She should go home.

Why is she knocking?

Doesn’t she know what time it is?

(What time is it?)

(It was last call at the bar.)

(She looks at her phone to check the time, forgets, and scrolls through Instagram instead.)

What is her deal?

She’s having a serious debate with her feet about turning heel and leaving when the door swings open to reveal  _ evening Lena _ . It’s when she’s come home after work, but only changed into comfy clothes. She’s unshowered and in her blurry end of day makeup.

There’s surprise and something else in her expression as she takes a step back and hugs herself.

“Kara, is something wrong?”

“I’m Mr. Brightside,” Kara says.

“You’re what?” Lena’s accent dips from American to Irish.

“I was singing karaoke,” Kara says like that is going to explain everything.

“You were?” Lena sounds a little hurt.

“I thought of inviting you, but it was a work thing and you’re the boss… so… yeah, we need other friends. We should make some of your friends into our friends. All we have is Sam and she’s like, my blood sister,” Kara clutches her chest for a moment in emotion, “Like, really. God, I thought it was just me, and Kal, and a whole prison full of my baggage. Rao, so many more of us survived than I thought. We’re like… space cockroaches.”

Okay, Lena looks really alarmed.

“Kara, you need to think about what you’re saying,” she says.

Kara holds her hands out like stop signs, “I just got really tired of not kissing you when I want to.”

That gets a reaction. Lena’s eyebrows go high and her eyes get all shiny, like they do when she thinks about Lex, or her Mom, or tries to talk about her other Mom.

“Sorry, back up, when d-did you want to kiss me?” Lena asks.

Kara closes the distance between them to grab Lena by the thumbs. She rocks her own neck back and forth as she hums.

“I dunno… all the time really. Like, when you opened the door, or when you come and visit me at my desk. Or, on those nights when we’ll curl up and watch  _ Big Fat Quiz _ and pretend to not be really horny,” she ducks her head at that last part. She’s probably overplayed her hand.

Lena’s turned a funny shade of crimson and there are actual tears in her eyes.

“Oh, shit, I made you cry,” Kara slaps the doorframe and leaves a dent.

She closes her eyes in a wince.

Then there are warm, fragrant arms wrapping around her. The contact sets her off, and now she’s pressing her face against Lena’s ear and into her neck. Lena sighs deeply, like with her whole body, relaxing--almost swooning into the heat of Kara’s embrace.

“You smell better than any person on Earth,” Kara growls into the skin of Lena’s jaw.

Lena’s running both hands through Kara’s loose hair. She tips back, opening access to her throat. Such trust. Leaning her weight on Kara and leaving herself so vulnerable. Kara could drop her. She could drag Lena’s throat out with her teeth.

Instead, she presses dry kisses there and carries Lena back into her apartment. They’re not even properly kissing, more like lion nuzzling, pressing their faces against each other. Feeling the synapses of sensation set fire to the pleasure centers of their brains.

“Do you feel all of this, or is it numbed like the punch of an alien?” Lena gasps.

“I definitely feel it,” Kara whispers.

Lena shudders at the air caressing the shell of her ear. Kara darts her tongue out to chase the shiver.

“God, Kara,” Lena moans.

Kara’s blouse is rumpled from the fingers roaming her back and her own hands are tracing the lines of Lena’s ribs.

There’s a fluttering of eyelashes that turns into eye contact. Blue-green on blue-green. Kara pushes their foreheads together, her breath fogging Lena’s lips.

“You’re so good,” she says, overcome with emotion.

“I’m not,” Lena tries to pull back.

Kara frames her jaw with both hands, “You are, you’re my hero.”

Lena’s eyes dart around, trying to beat back the tears rolling freely down her cheeks.

“You give so much, and you won’t even take back the praise you deserve.”

“Kara, please,” Lena says wetly.

“I won’t stop saying it until you know it’s true,” Kara whispers lips close enough to brush Lena’s.

Lena leans up, chasing Kara’s mouth. Kara holds her back with a finger. Lena backs off, looking apologetic.

“Say that you’re amazing and I’ll kiss you,” Kara says. She really hopes Lena doesn’t call her bluff, because she thinks she might actually combust if they don’t kiss this second.

“I-I-I,” Lena frowns, licking her lips and looking genuinely alarmed that the words won’t come out.

“I’m amazing,” Kara says.

“I am….” Lena struggles.

“I’m amazing.”

“I am uh-uh-amazing,” Lena gets it out.

Kara darts forward, kissing her on the ‘g’. That endlessly pulled tightrope between them finally goes slack. The tension bleeding out, but heat building with the way Kara licks into Lena’s mouth. Lena’s recovered and is making quick work of mauling Kara’s face with wet kisses, small kisses, smiling kisses, teeth clacking kisses.

“Your mouth tastes weird,” Lena pulls back.

Kara frowns, “Lychee candies? Oh, wait, fudge! I don’t know if that drink was safe for human consumption!”

Lena’s eyebrows climb high, “Wow, you just went out and said it.”

“Said what?” Kara frowns at her.

“How drunk are you right now?” Lena laughs a little hysterically.

Kara makes her coy drunk face, “Well, Middle Lena, I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been more sober.”

“Oh my god,” Lena buries her face in Kara’s collarbone and shakes with laughter.

“Can we go back to kissing?” Kara says.

Lena extracts herself from Kara’s embrace, “I think we’d best save that for morning.”

Kara pouts and Lena kisses it chastely. Kara leans in for more, and yes, manages to back Lena against her kitchen island. Her tongue is tracing the inner seam of Lena’s lips when she remembers.

“Oh, right! I should probably use mouthwash or something.”

“Kara, it’s fine. If I were going to go into shock it would have happened by now.”

“Would it?”

“We’re going to say yes so that I don’t have an anxiety attack right now.”

“Okay.”

Kara moves her head back. Lena holds up a hand, “I mean it, we need to stop kissing when you’re this drunk.”

“Or you could get the same drunk.”

“That’s still me taking advantage of you,” Lena says.

“You could stand to take advantage of me more. For the number of rumours about the things you do to me during our lunch breaks, the real Kara Danvers has been lacking in that kind of attention.”

Lena goes full Irish when she says, “Jesus Christ, Kara.”

“Is it my wardrobe? Should I dress more  _ Devil Wears Prada _ ?”

“No, your clothes are fine.”

“Because I like the fantasy of being this salary woman with my boss’s heel in my lap during a meeting.”

Lena makes a noise like she’s winded.

“You’re making it very hard for me to be a gentleman right now.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to be less of a gentleman,” Kara respects the distance though, leaning against the counter and looking sexy disheveled.

“I need to shower and you need to shower and we are going to do that separately, then go to bed and deal with all of this in the morning,” Lena says in her executive voice.

“That’s the way I want you to talk when I think about the other thing,” Kara tells her.

“Showering now!” Lena storms past.

Kara helps herself to some fridge leftovers and a bag of microwave popcorn. She’s eating a brown banana when freshly showered Lena comes padding out in pajamas.

“Go shower,” Lena says.

“Gosh, you’re so pretty,” Kara says.

Lena covers her face with both hands, before lifting one to point to the bathroom.

Kara follows the finger. There’s a cushy white towel waiting for her on the counter. Who owns white towels? Kara’s towels are weather worn and pastel. One purple towel has bleach stains from when she gave herself highlights. Then there’s her  _ Finding Nemo _ beach towel. Every piece of Kara’s home is indicative of who she is. She might not have a planet, but she has a house that says things about her. Lena’s house is like a show home. A prepackaged rich person condo bought from catalogues like ‘I have familial angst that I use expensive booze to cope with’ and ‘Chess Prodigy Monthly’. It needs colour. It needs the breath of life.

Kara inspects herself in the mirror and finally has her ‘oh fuck’ moment.

Supergirl is standing in Lena’s bathroom. Well, Kara Zor-El is standing in Lena’s bathroom. There’s no suit. But, her hair is down and her glasses are off. There’s some lipstick on her neck that she’s very happy to see. Lena’s seen her like this. Lena’s kissed her like this.

That’s a sobering thought. Kara feels like the room’s too small and digs her fingers into her palms, taking slow, deep breaths.

Two birds, one stone. Confessed everything at once there, Danvers.

There’s no going back now, she’ll just have to do sober damage control.

The water helps, She concentrates on the drops smattering her skin. Lena’s body wash smells like her and Kara feels like she’s finally done something worth the filthy looks her coworkers shoot her. She wants to relish in it. Rolling around in Lena’s scent and sheets. 

She’s rubbing Lena’s fluffy towels against her naked body and accepting the soft sleep shirt and shorts that have been left out for her.

Lena’s in her room, making her bed when Kara walks in.

“So, I uh, might have revealed more than I intended to… but, I was gonna tell you about the other thing, so this wasn’t exactly an accident,” Kara says.

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lena says.

“Lena, I’m Sup--”

“Kara, let’s just go to bed,” Lena sounds very tired.

“Okay,” Kara curls her toes under her feet and walks around to the side Lena doesn’t sleep on.

The bed is soft and huge, so Kara feels comfortable starfishing herself out and watching the ceiling spin.

“Goodnight, Kara,” Lena turns off the light.

“G’night Lena,” Kara yawns.

The world settles around Kara, she can feel everything. The pulse of Lena’s circulatory system, a distant rumble of thunder, the people living floors and doors down.

It’s like, she’s been too exhausted to keep her eyes open, but now she’s too stimulated to sleep.

She contemplates getting up and standing on the balcony, but Lena would think she’s running away.

She’s in Lena’s bed. Kara rolls onto her side and sees Lena pretend to not be staring from beneath her lashes.

“I love you,” comes on Kara’s exhale.

That’s the least shocking revelation of the night. Kara loving Lena Luthor isn’t a surprise. It’s a well known fact. 

“I love you too,” Lena says, frowning.

“Glad we’ve established this,” Kara smacks her lips and rolls over onto her other side. When she turns back over, she takes Lena’s hand and gently squeezes her fingers.

She passes out within the hour.

 

* * *

 

Lena is disappointed to wake up on her own side of the bed, unspooned and uncuddled. Her bed is big enough for her and Kara to spread out without touching, but a part of her hoped that they’d migrate together in their sleep. That she’d wake up to Kara’s groin pressed against her ass and her breath stirring Lena’s hair. At the very least, close enough to touch feet. Kara’s miles away on the other side of the bed, hair stuck to her mouth and adorable scrunchie sleep face.

Lena flops back against the mattress and considers her game plan. She could worm her way over there and pretend to have searched for the nearest heat source in her sleep.

She could touch herself?

No, too forward.

Is it too forward? They did dry hump against her kitchen counter last night.

She reaches for her phone instead, consulting the internet on appropriate make out wake up conduct.

“Your heart’s pounding,” Kara says, eyes still closed.

Lena ‘eep’s and drops her phone on her face.

Part of xenophobia is the fear of the unknown. Science Fiction pulp art cashed in on themes of vulnerability. That some force more powerful than the super predator that is a human being, is watching, and waiting to strike. That’s always been Lex’s fear. The Cold War paranoia masquerading as fiction became reality with the discovery that actual visitors from other planets walk among us, they’re your neighbours, teachers, and cab drivers. Someone capable of peeling a human like a grape is teaching your toddler how to dance. It’s like an immigrant and a pitbull all rolled into one. And, Lena understands. She fears the unknown just as much. She understands the suspicion. If humans are a dominant, sentient race on a planet, then chances are other dominant species are planet mining super predators. Now that we’re all stuck together, it’s just a dangerous death race waiting to happen.

This is all apropos of Lena becoming uncomfortably aware that her best friend, the woman she’s in love with, is a frightening alien capable of sensing Lena anywhere in the room.

One blue eye has opened and is regarding Lena with a kind of cold clarity. There is no human warmth to the creature that calls itself Kara Danvers when she awakens.

“Sleep well?” she asks, cracking her jaw.

It’s still Kara, it’s still Lena’s favourite person on the planet, but all of the human coding and pretense is stripped away. Even the shy interactions with Supergirl pale in comparison to this rawness.

“I did,” Lena says.

Kara rolls onto her side, hair flopping with her. She yawns, nice and wide, and for the first time, Lena notices that the back of Kara’s throat is blue.

“You’re an alien,” pops out of Lena’s mouth before she can stop it.

Kara regards her with a guarded gaze, “I am… is that… is that okay?”

Lena nods against her pillow, “Yeah. I just needed to say it. I knew, I just had to… announce it to the world.”

Kara adjusts her pillow, “How long have you known?”

“Long,” Lena dodges.

“Kombucha date long?”

“About that,” Lena’s accent slips and her voice slurs with sleep.

“I should have known,” Kara swears.

“I kept waiting for you to tell me,” Lena says bitterly.

Kara reaches out with her hand, massaging a thumb and making shaky eye contact, “I wanted to. I tried to, so many times, but the timing was never right. Then, it was too late. More things just kept filling up the hole the secret dug between us.”

“And, we know us Luthors can’t be trusted.”

“Lena, it’s not about that,” Kara says.

“Then what?”

Kara opens her mouth, a dozen justifications ready to jump out.  _ People could hurt you for your connection to me. Someone could hurt me to get to you. Neither of us can afford that weakness. It would put my identity in danger of we went public.  _

“I never wanted you to look at Kara the same way you've stared me down as Supergirl.”

“That’s a weak excuse, and now I can be mad at both.”

“See?! This is just what I was afraid of. Both of us can’t lose you,” Kara pleads.

Lena pouts playfully, “I’m sorry that you’re going to have to face consequences for what you do and say.”

Kara groans, “I don’t wanna! That’s why I have a secret identity.”

Lena raises an eyebrow.

“I’m kidding! Mostly,” Kara scoffs.

They’re mirroring each other, swimming their legs against the covers like kids at a sleepover. Excited at the first time they get to be fully open with each other.

“Hi,” Lena says.

“Hi,” Kara wriggles forward, lips pursed.

Lena moves her head away and Kara frowns.

“I have morning breath,” Lena says.

Kara rolls her eyes, “Luthor, just kiss me.”

Lena relents, but keeps her lips closed. Kara huffs after a few failed attempts to slip her tongue into Lena’s mouth.

“I’ll go brush then we can revisit this,” Lena sits up and pads to the bathroom. 

They end up meeting in the kitchen as Kara’s appetite beats her patience. So, she raids Lena’s fridge and finds a few eggs that don’t float and a frozen loaf of artisanal bread.

“You need to try actually living in your house and consuming something that isn’t takeout or booze,” she says upon bun-and-toothbrush Lena’s arrival.

“So strange that no stones have shattered that glass house you’ve thrown them from,” Lena fires back.

Kara takes the point. There’s a comfortable domesticity to this situation, despite how just a day ago there was none of this. Lena expected more fireworks, more upset. Instead they’re just… their barest selves around each other.

Well, not fully bare yet. Lena spits in the sink and sets her toothbrush down.

“Hey, Kara,” Lena says.

“Mmm?” Kara flips an egg.

“Kara.”

Kara looks, looks away, then does a double take at the sight of Lena’s bare chest.

“Lena, I’m cooking!”

“You can still cook,” Lena revels in the attention Kara’s eyes are paying to her nipples. They harden under the cool air and her arousal.

Kara licks her lips, but goes back to cooking.

“I’m sorry, are you ignoring me for food?” Lena says, incredulous.

“Lee, you learned my priorities when we first met,” Kara says.

Lena feels a rush of delight at the new nickname. She’s not the kind of person to get called ‘Lee’. She likes it. It makes her feel like a cowboy.

“I’m here, all laid out and wanton for you and you’re making eggs,” Lena continues to gripe.

“Eggs and toast. You need bacon. I could do a sex to you right now, but my blood sugar’s low.”

“Was hypoglycemia a concern on Krypton?” Lena puts her shirt back on and winces at the cold of the barstool that she sits on.

“I’ll add that to the notebook of questions to ask my mother,” Kara says.

“Eliza?”

“No, my birth mother.”

“Right, of course. I’d forgotten you reunited,” Lena says.

The silence between them turns awkward. Lena remembers to put her toothbrush away and jogs back to the bathroom, deciding to put more of her face on if she’s going to be deprived first thing in the morning sex.

They sit next to the balcony as they eat. It’s a little too chilly to be outside, as the marine fog still hasn’t cleared up and is coating the city in a cool grey. 

They’re reading the news off their tablets like grown ups with newspapers, and Lena reaches out with a foot, to put it on Kara’s chair. Kara grabs it and settles it into her lap.

Seeing her reading sans glasses is an unfamiliar image. Something she’ll have to get used to. 

Something from last night comes into mind and Lena bites her lower lip, sliding her heel further, across Kara’s thigh and pressing her arch into her crotch. Kara’s eyes widen and she looks up.

“I could go and grab some Louboutins if you’d like,” Lena lets her voice drop.

She watches the muscles in Kara’s neck and jaw work and those eyes move around the room. 

“Or do you have some emergency to get to?” Lena offers her an out.

Very calmly, Kara lifts Lena’s foot and keeps it in hand as she steps, using the connect to reel herself in, kneeling in front of Lena’s chair and kissing the pad of her foot before sliding the leg over a shoulder.

“Kara!” Lena yelps, feeling the swollen lips hidden beneath sleep shorts and underwear make a sticky noise as they’re separated.

“Isn’t this what you want?” Kara says against the skin of Lena’s knee.

Lena sucks her lip and nods hard. She blinks a few times, trying to sear the image of Kara, morning tousled and predatory on her knees. Kara skims her teeth along the length of Lena’s thigh, pausing to suck hard at the skin. Lena twitches, heart pounding, because there’s no power inhibitor currently active. It’s like being in the mouth of a lion. Except the lion is a person she loves. Her best friend.

“I’ll be gentle,” Kara says.

They both burst out laughing after a pause.

Lena covers her face, “Why is this so weird?”

Kara rests her chin against Lena’s knee, “It’s just us, right?”

Lena nods, then reaches for Kara’s cheek. Kara leans into it, kissing her palm.

“Can we move to the couch?” Lena asks.

“That’d be easier,” Kara scoops Lena up with little preamble.

Lena takes the opportunity to run her hands over Kara’s arms and shoulders, “We still have to test your sensitivity, Supergirl.” 

Kara’s jaw drops and Lena leans forward to catch her lower lip between her teeth.

“Call me Supergirl again,” Kara says.

Lena wriggles in Kara’s arms, before pawing back some of Kara’s hair, “I want to see you on your knees, Supergirl.”

She falls back against the cushions, giggling and breaking character. She keeps giggling against Kara’s harsh mouth. Lena raises her hips, letting the roaming hands drag her sleep shorts and panties off in one go. The leather of the couch is cool against her ass. Then she’s being spread open again. Kara’s looking between her legs with that lioness look again.

“Can I?” her eyes dart up to Lena for pleading permission.

“Please. Do whatever you want to me,” Lena says.

Like with food, Kara dives in head first. She separates Lena’s folds with her tongue, gathering all of the wetness, then spreading it in a line from clit to cunt. Lena chokes, moans, cries out, and reaches for anything to hold onto. One hand locks fingers with Kara’s, the other tangles itself in blonde hair.

Getting tonguefucked by her best friend and crush is one level, the animal level of her current sexual position. But, on the intellectual level, she’s got the tongue of the most powerful being on the planet sliding against her ass. It’s this electric place between powerful and powerless, and it is delicious.

“More,” she manages to yelp.

“So wet,” Kara says with some awe as she pulls the two fingers she’s just slid inside Lena back out and examined them.

“Kara, please fuck me!” Lena pulls her attention back to the task at hand.

Kara smiles goofily, “I just knew you’d be greedy.”

Lena doesn’t have enough time to be affronted before Kara’s diving back in and vibrating her tongue against Lena’s clit. The two fingers curling inside Lena are almost teasing, almost enough to get her off, but not quite.

“Kara!”

Kara hums, returning to the broad strokes of her tongue.

“Kara, please!”

“On a scale of one to ten, how sensitive would you say you are here?” Kara asks pleasantly.

“Asshole!”

Kara runs a thumb over Lena’s ass, making her back arch and her breath hitch.

“And here?”

The blood in Lena’s body isn’t sure where to pool, in her cheeks or in her swollen vulva, but certainly not in her brain. Kara rubs the thumb in circles, getting a yip every time.

“Please, Kara,” Lena’s on the verge of tears, “You know just what to do, I’m yours, just… just have me.”

Kara pulls Lena down for a kiss, “I love you.”

“I love you, so much.”

They press their foreheads together, then the playful bastard who’s been depriving Lena of an orgasm is back.

“I know Kara wants to give you what you want, Miss Luthor, but Supergirl’s a harder sell.”

Lena frames Kara’s head between her knees, “Of course. Supergirl, would you be so kind as to fuck me into oblivion.”

Kara hides her laugh against Lena’s wet thigh, “Ma’am, I’ll do my best.”

Her best is giving Lena three orgasms in about two minutes. Maybe less, Lena kind of blacks out in the middle of the second one and checks back in at the start of the third. Kara’s looking up at her with some concern.

“God, you’re so good at that.” Lena says, wincing at how it hurts to relax her wrist. She strokes her hand through Kara’s hair and pushes herself back onto the tongue still rooted in her opening. Kara licks in response. Still sensitive, Lena twitches with aftershocks.

She bites her lip, wanting more, but listening to her body’s calls to tap out.

Kara pushes her tongue in further, taking that as a ‘go’. And, despite the sensitivity leaning more towards pain than pleasure, Lena takes a fourth. But, then her clit feels fat and sore, so she pushes Kara’s head away.

“Okay?” Kara asks, chin wet and eyes big.

“More than okay,” Lena pulls her up for more kissing.

Kara pushes Lena to lie back on the couch and lies between her legs. Now Lena’s vision is Kara, haloed by blonde hair.

“Thank you for your service, Supergirl,” Lena says.

Kara turns bright pink, “I, uh, you’re welcome.”

“My, my, I’m learning a lot about your buttons, Kara. So turned on by power dynamics.”

Kara ducks her head, averting her eyes. Lena kisses her forehead and pulls her down for an embrace, “You don’t have to feel ashamed around me.”

“It’s just embarrassing, all of those times you used a bossy voice while calling me ‘Supergirl’, how you’re so tiny, but you stand so tall in your heels.”

“I am a few inches shorter than you at most.”

“So tiny.”

“You’re five foot eight.”

“I think you’ll need to wash this shirt,” Kara says, leaning up to reveal the wet stain Lena’s left on the stomach of heather grey cotton.

“I think we can solve this by undressing you,” Lena says, feeling sultry.

She pushes Kara back, shedding her own shirt to dangle her breasts over Kara’s lap, missing the anxious look on Kara’s face. Kara removes the shirt willingly and watches through lidded eyes as Lena pulls a pink nipple between her lips.

“So strong,” Lena groans, kissing her way across muscular ribs and abs. They shudder under her mouth.  

It’s not enough. She needs all of Kara. She needs the two of them locked together without barriers. Her thumb hooks its way into Kara’s waistband.

Kara catches Lena’s hand and Lena pauses to check in. Kara’s shaking, eyes blazing in terror.

“Kara,” Lena says softly.

“I’m not… I’m different there,” Kara says.

Lena takes a moment to say a little thanks to whatever deities are out there. Not that she’d be against Kara having a perfectly human vagina. Lena would still go to town on that. But, in the name of scientific interest, having something new is worth looking forward to.

“Well,” Lena says, she strokes Kara’s knuckles, “I like you for you. No matter what attachments you might come with. I promise, I’d still want to fuck you if there was a gnome down there.”

Kara laughs breathlessly. She swallows hard, still shaking.

“We don’t have to right now,” Lena backs off.

Kara gives another nod, “No, I want to, it’s just hard.”

“If it’s hard then I’ll fuck it,” Lena says, then smacks her own forehead, feeling incredibly lame.

That gets a real laugh. Kara relaxes and gives the nod for Lena to go ahead.

Lena takes a deep breath and pulls the sleep shorts down.

Kara’s like a barbie doll down there. All that fear is over… the absence. There are no genital--wait.

There’s a little notch, not big enough to be labia, but the only thing that isn’t the same smooth skin. Out from the notch wriggles an… appendage. A blue-purple one that starts small, then grows. Lena feels sweat rolling out of her armpits, trying not to react to the development.

It’s not a penis. At least, not in the traditional definition. If she had to compare it to something on Earth, it’d be a sea anemone. A long one. About seven or eight inches long. Thick enough to wrap her hand around, with four seams along the shaft and a head that opens up into tendrils of a fluorescent purple. Lena can feel her eyebrows hike and her cunt leak and she isn’t sure just how to verbally respond.

“Is that an ovipositor?” her dumb mouth says.

Kara rubs her face with her palm, “I think so?”

“Do you… lay eggs with it?” Lena fails to keep her voice even.

“Uh, I think so?” Kara says, avoiding eye contact.

“You don’t know?”

“Tube bred, remember? I haven’t had a chance to ask my mom about the birds and the bees yet. Here, I’ll just put it away,” Kara reaches for her shorts. Lena slaps away her hand.

“Can I touch it?” she asks, voice low.

Kara bites her lip, then nods.

Lena takes a bold step forward in the name of scientific discovery (and in getting her back blown out). She traces every part she can reach, even dipping her fingers into the opening. Kara moans and adjusts her weight, gripping the couch.

“Is it sensitive?” Lena says, amazed at the tendrils pulling her fingers deeper. 

Kara nods.

“Can I use my mouth?” Lena asks.

Kara’s eyes open comically.

“I mean, if you want, is it safe? Do you have any condoms?”

Lena shakes her head, “I’ve tested genetic compatibility, barring STDs it should be safe for me to taste you raw.”

“I’ve been tested. By Alex. Which is humiliating, but I’m clean. Could never be sure after Mon-El.”

“Me too,” Lena says.

Kara makes a series of shrugs. Lena distract her by wrapping her tongue around the shaft. Kara cries out, hips jittering in place.

The taste isn’t noteworthy. It’s a little bitter and salty, just like skin. Lena spits on it then gets to work building pressure with her hand. The tendrils beneath the skin give it a bumpy texture and a writhing twitching that feels weird under tongue, but will probably be amazing inside. Lena traces one of the seams with her thumb and finds that it yields under pressure, separating. She stops with a concerned noise. 

Kara's hair frames her face as she looks down, “You okay?”

“I'm sorry! I split it! Are you okay? I have--I have ace bandages!”

“Ace bandages?” Kara asks. 

“You aren't freaking out that I split your genitals. That's usually something people find upsetting.”

“Well, I was gonna save this to blow your mind later, but check it out.”

Kara removes Lena's hand and wraps her own around the phallus. She finds the seams and gives them a squeeze. Lena is somewhere at the crossroads of horror, arousal, and fascination. The… pod blooms into five pieces, an alien kind of floral and definitely vaginal. The stamen she felt beneath the skin are revealed, writhing and wet. Lena licks her lips and thinks of something to say. 

“Hermaphroditic genitalia. Fascinating.”

Kara groans, “Thank you, Doctor Luthor.”

“You are amazing,” Lena says, falling in love with the open flower before her. 

She hesitates before licking, but commits to using a broad stroke of her whole tongue. Okay, so Lena hates all literature that calls a woman’s taste ‘sweet’ or ‘fruity’, but Kara’s nethers are definitely that. And the mouthfeel.

“Um, can I put it back together?” Kara asks, cheeks red.

“Like, back into the pod shape?” Lena asks.

“Yeah, I’ve just always fantasized about…” she searches for the words, suddenly shy, “Being inside you.”

“God, Kara, in any way you want. But, first, can I put on some red sun lamps?” Lena remembers her senses.

“Yeah, that… that would be a good idea.”

“Because once we get started it’s going to be hard to stop, and I may ask you to pound me into oblivion in the act, but I do want to keep my organs.”

“Such a romantic.”

Lena gets up and finds her light remote, clicking a few on. Kara looks around, first bewildered, then accepting.

“How long have you been pre--”

“A long time.”

The pod’s back together and Lena’s mounting Kara’s lap.

“Are you sure you want to?” Kara asks.

“More than sure,” Lena kisses her and takes the phallus in her hand. She has to move around, finding the right angle, but it’s firm enough push in. It’s just the normal pressure of boyfriend dick, until it isn’t. The tendrils inside the pod exit through the head, groping at Lena’s insides before she can even take all of Kara in.

“Holy shit,” she pants unceremoniously.

Kara’s digging her fingers into the couch hard enough that she’d break it at full power. She’s being a gentleman, letting Lena set the pace. Lena has to pull it out most of the way to get the momentum to take it all in. It’s a bit more violent than she means to, but then they’re flush at the base. Kara gasps, head tipping back against the couch. Lena waits for her eyes to flutter open.

“Hi,” Lena whispers, clearing some hair away from Kara’s face.

“Hi,” Kara says.

“I want you rough. And, I want you to dirty talk me while you do it, Supergirl.”

Kara blushes, “I’m not sure if I can.”

“You’ve got such a talent for language, though,” Lena says.

Kara takes the ego stroke like she takes the tongue stroking her clavicle.

“Tell me if I’m hurting you and I’ll stop,” Kara says, shifting their position to give herself more leverage.

Lena’s head smacks the arm of the sofa, pushed up by the first thrust. Kara moves her hand to cushion it, and uses the other hand to rearrange Lena properly, legs hitched over Kara’s hips and one nipple in Kara’s mouth.

The rhythm builds between them, tendrils still exploring deeper and finding the most sensitive parts of Lena’s insides. Looking for the spot to deposit Kara’s eggs. 

The dirty talk does come naturally once Kara’s fully into it. She sees Lena spread out below her, all creamy limbs and red mouth and just growls.

“So perfect, you drive me insane,” she says.

Lena hiccups encouragingly. She’s squeezing Kara on each thrust and clawing up her back. It’s enough to make a woman want to let go.

“Kara, please,” Lena manages to moan.

Kara’s spent her years on Earth holding back. She’s had to. The wet cardboard planet. She a bull in a China shop, but the dishes are her friends and family.

Red light illuminates them, bleeding the superhuman abilities out of Kara. Kara can’t hear the planes taking off, and she can’t hear a child’s laughter three blocks away. She does hear Lena’s heartbeat and breath. She can’t smell brownies in Wyoming, but she can smell Lena’s soft body scent. There’s nothing else begging for her attention. She can’t even hear the third missed call on her 2% battery phone in the next room, having left it on silent. Only Lena has her attention.

So, Kara swears lowly, calls Lena a  _ goddess, _ and  _ so lovely,  _ and  _ a breeding whore _ in Kryptonian and fucks her with all her might. The sofa protests, scooching a little across the floor with the force of Kara’s thrusts. There’s something blocking her, but freedom comes with Lena wrapping Kara’s hair around her hand like a rope and jerking her neck back, biting hard on Kara’s exposed throat.

They’re like animals, locked together and twitching as Kara empties her eggs into Lena’s cervix. 

“Fuck,” Lena pants, going slack. 

Kara chuckles, resting her open mouth against Lena’s brow and panting heavily.

“I can feel you,” Lena says.

“I can feel you too,” Kara says.

“No, I mean, typically when a human man finishes you don’t really feel anything… coming out.”

“Oh! Is that okay?” Kara asks.

“It’s so hot,” Lena’s lost all sense of embarrassment in her post-coital haze, “Actually, can you get my phone. I want to document what comes out of me for science.”

Kara raises her eyebrows and laughs dumbly, “You want to take pictures of my cum leaking out of you… for science?”

“Yes.”

“Just for science?”

“No, Kara, I’m going to make it my wallpaper, obviously.”

“I mean, is it secure? It could go on the cloud?”

“I’m a tech CEO, I have a secure phone,” Lena says testily.

“Alright, alright, just didn’t want to be girl who got her girlfriend’s alien egg nudes leaked online.”

Kara and Lena both groan as Kara pulls out. Lena can feel her insides protesting, missing the warmth and the delightful little internal massage. Kara takes a few breaths before getting up to grab Lena’s phone. She finds her own phone, seeing a few letters illuminate before it dies.

“Hey, can I use your charger?” she calls over her shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s by the bed!”

Kara plugs her phone in, brows knitted as she brings Lena’s phone to her. She does her best to ignore the message notifications, but she fails, seeing several missed calls from James.

Yes, James. Lena’s boyfriend. Kara’s ex-something. Her boss. She just laid eggs in her boss’s girlfriend. Her ex’s girlfriend. Her boss’s boss.

Rao, they’re a friendcestous bunch. What is this, a CW show?

“Sam texted to ask you for the specs on something called ‘The Eve’, I really hope you’re not talking about Eve Teschmacher,” Kara says.

“No, unfortunate coincidence. I was supposed to send Sam something last night.”

“Nudes?”

“Shut up,” Lena makes a grabby hand for her phone.

She fires out a few texts and stares at the missed calls before pulling up her camera app and handing it to Kara.

Kara holds it, still staring at Lena.

“I’m going to try pushing a few out, I need samples for some tests anyway. Do you have more?” Lena asks.

Kara covers her face, “Yes, I have more eggs.”

“Excellent.”

Kara takes a deep breath, comes to terms with this being her life now, and turns on one of the white light lamps, “Here, for fill light.”

They take a few pictures of Lena’s nethers with the excuse of ‘for science’ before devolving into a lewd photoshoot, which devolves into Kara abandoning the phone altogether and climbing back on top of Lena.

They’re on round four, and Kara’s admiring Lena’s ass slapping against Kara’s hips, leaned over the arm of the couch and enjoying the view of the city when Lena’s apartment door opens.

“Hey, you haven’t been picking up. Have you seen Kara, she left her… glasses… at….” James trails off.

Kara doesn’t have the super speed to preserve any dignity. She just dumbly gapes at James, hands still wrapped around Lena’s waist, and very much connected at the groin.

James makes a face between a smile and a snarl. He takes a few strides to put Kara’s glasses down onto the kitchen counter. He still looks like he’s searching for words.

“Kara, you left these at the bar last night. Left looking a whole lot like Supergirl too, so we’re going to have a chat about that on Monday. And you--” he gestures to Lena, but doesn’t speak her name. Kara shields Lena with her body. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

Then he leaves with the slam of a door.

The room feels cold now, Lena sighs and pushes her hair away from her face. Kara pulls out and scoots away, giving her space.

It’s more than five minutes before either says anything.

“I fucked up,” Lena says.

“Lena--”

“And I’m not sorry about it,” she adds. 

Kara gets up to put her glasses on, sighing in some relief at the barrier they give her. She fidgets with them as she sits back down.

“Are you still hard?” Lena asks.

Kara covers her face and begins to laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess James was the real Mr. Brightside, am I right?
> 
> If you bookmark this fic with this chapter number, just a bookmark with the number of the smut chapter, then I want you to know that I am judging you, you filthy pervert.

**Author's Note:**

> I write for free because I like to share my work with all y'all. All I want in return is to hear your thoughts in that comment box down below. Pls and Thx. If you have time to bookmark, then you have time to give me a little word of encouragement.


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